75th Alle-Kiski Valley Marching Band Festival showcases halftime shows in Penn Hills

Hundreds of students from several schools performed at the 75th Alle-Kiski Valley Marching Band Festival on Thursday in Penn Hills.

Instrumental tunes of generational hits such as Ike and Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary,” and Hanson’s “MMMBop” to NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” to Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” and many others rang out throughout the Penn Hills High School grounds.

In addition to host Penn Hills High, the band festival featured performances from Plum, Springdale, Highlands, Valley, Freeport Area and Kiski Area high schools.

“It’s awesome to see the local Valley bands come together and share our talents and celebrate each other,” said Kiski Area band director Shawn Pityk.

Pityk has been involved with the marching band in one form or another for 21 years. He said he was delighted to be able to continue the festival tradition with his students.

“It’s pretty prolific,” he said about the festival’s 75th milestone. “I would imagine that there’s not many other organizations in the country that have had such a longstanding (festival) like this. It’s great that it’s continuing on. I hope it does for many years.

”I think it’s very rare for something like this to be such a long-lasting event.”

Pityk’s program was called “Corners of My Mind” and featured multiple marimbas, an electric bass and several other instruments in addition to those that the marchers were playing.

Highlands band parent Carrie Davis came out to support her son, Zach, a freshman saxophonist. She was accompanied by her daughter, seventh grader Kayleen. Davis said the festival was a first for the family.

“I think it’s a nice idea,” Davis said. “It gets them to hear other bands and supporting in a fun way other schools.”

Co-coordinators Kelly Frey and Melissa Webb, president and vice president of the Penn Hills Band Parent Association, respectively, began planning the event in June.

The festival is hosted by different schools each year. Penn Hills last had it in 2014.

Temperatures were in the 60s and grey clouds gave a threat of rain. There was a light drizzle across the area just hours before the event.

“It’s football weather,” Frey said. “This is all the fun of halftime without the football part. We’re still fully marching. Our (football) team is excellent. We don’t mind watching our team. They’re a team worth cheering for.”

Other activities at the festival included a basket raffle and 50-50 raffle as well as a bake sale. Those proceeds benefit the Penn Hills band.

Parents also had messages of encouragement read over the public address system prior to their students’ band taking the field.

“We’re just excited having everyone here all wanting to support their local bands,” Webb said. “That’s what this is about. It’s about having the whole community surround these kids that put in so much time and effort into producing a wonderful half-time show and showing them the support that they deserve.”

Thursday was the rain date for the festival. It was originally planned for Wednesday, but it was postponed due to inclement weather.

Organizers said the change ended up costing four schools their chance to participate.

There were scheduling conflicts with Leechburg Area, Burrell, Apollo-Ridge and Deer Lakes, according to Frey.

“Band kids are usually involved in a lot of things, not just band,” she said.

All schools were mentioned in the festival program.

Penn Hills Superintendent Nancy Hines said she could not make it due to a family medical emergency, but she was there in spirit cheering on the young Indians.

“(We are) pleased to serve as host for this year’s Alle-Kiski band festival. We welcome the many guests who will be joining us tonight and anticipate an exciting performance from our very own Penn Hills High School marching band.”