Megabands get ready for Starlight

If your world starts shaking while a horn fanfare calls up to heaven at about 8:30 p.m. tonight, don’t panic. It’s probably not The Big One we’ve been fearing.

More likely it’s The Big Two: a pair of massively mashed-up marching bands from Vancouver’s main school districts, as they take part in the Starlight Parade that anchors the second weekend of Portland’s annual Rose Festival. Each one of these bands is a megaband — no other word will do — blending four marching bands from either Vancouver Public Schools or Evergreen Public Schools.

It all adds up to a massive group of 1,154 marching musicians, cheerleaders, dancers, color guards and other student entertainers from Clark County high schools, invading the Saturday night Starlight Parade in two overwhelming waves.

One wave is the Vancouver Public Schools megaband, combining groups from Columbia River, Skyview, Fort Vancouver and Hudson’s Bay high schools. According to Columbia River band director Dave Keckes-Chartrey, 347 young people are marching in that complex operation.

“It’s loud. It’s so much fun,” said Tim Heichelheim, the band director at Skyview. The size and noise of that small rehearsing army has literally stopped traffic on the streets around Hudson’s Bay High School, he said, as drivers have pulled over and gotten out of their cars to listen and stare.

The group has been practicing staying on beat despite its sprawling size, and in tight formation despite obstacles, street corners and other coordination challenges. When it spreads across the Hudson’s Bay track and assumes the size and shape it’ll take in Portland for the parade, Heichelheim said, the combined Vancouver Public Schools marching megaband is as long as a football field — or approximately two city blocks.

The key to staying on beat, Keckes-Chartrey said, is stationing the drums and percussion right in the middle of everything. Normally the percussion section brings up the rear, but for this escapade the tempo must be central. “You build the band from loudest out to the softest,” he said. “Percussion is smack dab in the middle so everyone can hear it. Trumpets and tubas are near the middle too. The flutes and clarinets are on the outside.”

Perhaps the bouncy, energetic playlist will cause an earthquake after all: “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon and “Sing a Song” by Earth Wind & Fire.

“At the first rehearsal we thought we’d have to teach a lot of music, but the majority came completely prepared and knocked it out of the park,” said Heichelheim. “We were blown away.”

The bandleaders are Keith Norris of Fort Vancouver High School, Craig Bunch of Hudson’s Bay, Josiah Nelson and Keckes-Chartrey at River, and Heichelheim at Skyview.

Even more mega

The other wave is even huger. The Evergreen School District marching megaband will feature 807 students, according to Don Nelson, the district’s music and fine arts manager.

“That’s a lot of humanity marching down the street, all in step,” he said. “The sound is absolutely overwhelming.”

Too overwhelming for its own good? “There are risks,” Nelson admitted. “It’s a little scary going around a corner while everybody’s trying to play the same song and keep with the same beat. A parade presents challenges, and this parade presents some big ones.

“But people like to take risks,” he added. “Why else do people jump out of airplanes or climb mountains? There’s an element of rolling the dice and that’s part of the fun.”

The logistical support required to get those 807 students — plus nearly 40 parents and other chaperones — to and from Portland will also be industrial in scale: 18 school buses, and special pre-arrangements with the Rose Festival to find space for them.

The bandleaders are Brent Johnson and Craig Gustafson of Evergreen High School; Sam Ormson, Robbie Rutherford and Hannah Mowry of Mountain View High School; Mark Claassen and Tim Siess of Union High School; and Phil Scamahorn and Jay Cobb of Heritage High School. The playlist is “Thriller” by Michael Jackson and “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper.

“It looks like the era of those two songs (1970s and 1980s) reflects the band directors more than the students,” Nelson joked.