The Panther Marching Band will host its 42nd PMB Festival Saturday at O’Brien Field.

Benjamin Druffel, the director of the Panther Marching Band, said PMB Festival is a rich event.

“It helps us to recruit. For this year, we invited high school marching bands to come on campus and perform the show,” Druffel said. “There are 23 bands coming this year, about 1,300 high school students, also their families and friends will come too. It is also a good opportunity that shows … people what Charleston and Eastern is like.”

Druffel said the festival takes a year of preparation and planning and there are always different challenges that come up, like finding the right date and the judges, which he said are very qualified people and in demand.

“ I have to contact (the judges) a year in advance to make sure they book (PMB) on their calendar; well-expected and well-known judges … make high schools want to come. And other pieces of work need professional staff to cooperate with each other to ensure the day of festival can go well,” he said.

Kelly Prete, a freshman psychology major and a member of the Panther Marching Band, said she is looking forward to playing at this year’s festival.

“We practice on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is interesting and I am excited (for) this year’s festival,” Prete said.

On the day of festival, all the high schools will perform first and the Panther Marching Band will perform at the end.

This is also a recruitment opportunity for the high school students, as they will see how the Panther Marching Band is and if they want to join in it.

After high school bands perform at the show, the professional judges will evaluate the bands on how well they play the music, how well they march and how well both the music and the march come together.

Then awards will be given to different bands depending on how well they do.

Bethany McDaniel, a freshman music major and a member of the Panther Marching Band, said she is excited and nervous to play in front of the high schoolers.

“We have to practice more careful than before, because these high school students know how … bands perform. And I am so happy that my high school will also come,” McDaniel said. 

The Panther Marching Band always performs during football games during this part of the semester, but Caleb Pook, a junior sociology major and psychology minor and a member of the marching band, said the band is excited for the change in audiences.

“It is different and it is fun,” Pook said. 

Yifei Ma can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].