By RORY MOORE
Tiger Media Network
The 2025 High Plains Marching Festival took place at Lewis Field on Monday to allow High School marching bands from across Kansas to showcase their talents and compete for awards for their performances. Each band was adjudicated on music, general effect, auxiliary, marching and maneuvering, and percussion for five ratings: superior, excellent, good, fair and poor.
Playing a percussion instrument. 
Ulysses HS opens the 2025 High Plains Marching Festival. 
Twirling flags in front of brass. 
Nickerson HS performing on Lewis Field. 
Playing their own renditions of various Pop Culture themes. 
Victor Lopez maintains Mackville’s tempo on drums. 
A brass ensemble. 
Larned HS marches on field. 
Performing on the Tigers’ home turf. 
Leaning back during a flute piece. 
Concordia HS plays in front of other bands. 
Ingalls HS performing in side-by-side formation. 
Scott Community HS performs. 
Conductors of the Abilene KS Marching Cowboys tip their hats to the crowd. 
Marching in formation. 
Hays High performing the main theme from “Pirates of the Caribbean.” 
Playing a xylophone. 
Dancing and moving around to swash-buckling music. 
Salina South moving around the field to “The Greatest Showman.” 
Showcasing their skills. 
The Salina Central Mustang Marching Band. 
An energized performance. 
Trumpeting into the microphone. 
The Tiger Marching Band closing out with an exhibition. 
The higher rated bands lined up for result announcements. 
The Tiger drum line congratulating the bands.
This year’s festival featured 14 marching bands who traveled to perform their halftime shows before the Tiger Marching Band performed an exhibition to conclude the event.
“This is often the last competition through the state,” said Peter Lillpopp, associate professor of music and band director. “Many of the bands do some of the other competitions at K-State and KU, then come here for their last one, and our band here at Fort Hays are the guides for all the high schoolers as they come through.”
The higher-rated bands were awarded plaques showing their ratings, helping recognize superior musical talent among the high school ranks.
“One of the features of the festival is it supports developing bands,” Lillpopp said. “These bands have just started marching or are new to marching. But we also attract bands from the Wichita and Kansas City areas. It’s primarily an adjudication, not a competition, and it’s a supportive environment for bands of all levels.”
Assistant Professor of Percussion Luke Helker served as a judge for adjudication.
“My criteria is largely dependent on if it’s just a drum line versus is it a drum line and a front ensemble,” he said. “Keyboards, drum set, any other stationary percussion instruments up front, how they are setting the tempo and pace for the rest of the band, and how they’re able to maintain the tempo across themselves as the ensemble and how that tempo relationship is reinforced with the rest of the band responding to them.”
Helker relied on band dynamics when judging each band.
“I want to make sure their marching is in sync with one another,” he said. “So often, if the marching is out of step with one another, that’s going to translate into their hands. So, hopefully, their hands are clean, their sticking is uniform, and their general concept of sound is cohesive across the ensemble.”
While Salina Central and Salina South stood out to Helker based on ensemble, he was impressed with every band that traveled to Hays.
“Every band had a solid foundation in terms of responsibilities for each student and within the composite whole of the drum line,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I needed to judge the students any differently, so most of my comments were smaller, nitpickier things that would separate a great ensemble from an excellent ensemble.”
Associate Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Trumpet Aunna Marzen judged marching and maneuvering.
“There’s a long list of things we’re looking for,” she said. “Really, it’s just uniformity between the winds, brass, percussion and guard, how the forms all fit together, and what they’re doing is visually appealing. We want [them] to look as uniform as possible, so when that starts to tear, that’s when we start to tick off moments for that.”
Marzen approached them like other bands she worked with, regardless of age or category.
“Since they were high schoolers, that’s all one category,” she said. “Because there’s different kinds of marching bands, there’s a certain criteria you’re looking for, but there are aspects of how big the band is. We’re not going to judge a band that’s 15 people in comparison to a band that’s 90+ people. Size makes a difference, and not all bands are created equal in that regard, so it doesn’t mean we’re being any more lenient with them, but we do take that into consideration.”
Not only does the Marching Festival display talent, but it also instills a sense of pride in high school marching bands.
“They can walk away from a competition with a superior rating and feel good about that effort they put in,” Marzen said. “Marching band does take a lot of time and effort, and we heard the other bands cheering when they got superiors or goods. That’s something they can feel good about going home, and talking about it for a long time.”
A full list of schools and results can be found at https://www.fhsu.edu/music-and-theatre/festivals-camps/HP-marching-festival/.