Director Information

Overview:

The Mountain Grove Panther Pride Band would like to invite you to attend the 4th Annual Mountain Grove Marching Festival on October 17th, 2026. We have a fantastic facility with a state of the art turf field. This field show only festival will be a "one and done" format (no finals) and will be based on band size (winds and percussion).  Located in South Central Missouri, we hope to showcase bands from Missouri and Arkansas specifically, but all bands are welcome!

We want this festival to be a friendly learning experience for your students with lots of opportunities for "hardware". Every group will be given a video copy of their performance as well as feedback from the judges to use for future performances. We plan to offer lots of awards in captions including Music, Visual, General Effect, Percussion, Color Guard. There will also be awards for Outstanding Drum Major, outstanding soloist, rating awards for those who score a 1 or a 2 overall, and Grand Champion award.

The entry fee to register is $250 per band with September 14th being the deadline to register. Invoices can be found on above.  If you would like to join us, please fill out the registration form, so you may be added to the festival roster. If there is some information you don't know yet, give your best estimate and we'll send out a follow up form closer to festival time. Otherwise, if you have any questions please contact Daniel Van Aalsburg (Director of Bands) at dvanaalsburg@mg.k12.mo.us or Brad Dietz (Assistant Director) at bdietz@mg.k12.mo.us. We hope to see you at this year's Mountain Grove Marching Festival this fall!

Judging Panel:

TBD

2025 Festival Details (will update for 2026):

Admission:

General Admission - $10

Children 6 and up and seniors 65 and up - $5

Children 5 and under - FREE

Parking:

In your packet, you will find a schedule for the day’s events.  On that schedule, it will tell you which parking lot you need to go to (Lot A of B).  Both lots are located on 9th street.  Lot A is located near the YMCA and Lot B in a gravel lot by our elementary school (see map).  We will have signs and people near both lots to guide you to your location.  Spectator parking is located right beside the stadium. 

Arrival:

Once you arrive, one of our band students will stamp all of your students/staff/drivers hands for entry into the stadium.  There isn’t a check-in table or anything, all info can be found in this email.  However, Mr. Dietz or myself will try to greet each band as they arrive and will have our phones on us if you need anything.  Bathrooms can be found in the YMCA building for those and can be used for changing if needed.  Students should not be in that building unless they are changing or using the restroom.  Thank you for your help with this.  Due to the layout of our campus and wanting to make sure we don’t disrupt the performing bands we ask that you please, point instruments away from the field if warming up in the parking lot and to try to save your “full band sound” warmup for your designated warmup slot.  We have tried to make sure everyone has plenty of warm-up time.  Feel free to use as much space as you need while being respectful of the other bands around you for visual warm-ups or other setups.  Lastly, student band guide(s) will meet you at least 30 minutes before your warm-up time to help you with anything you might need.  

General Flow:

As you can see on the schedule, each band will be given 35 minutes for music warm-up and 10 minutes travel time to the stadium.  You should have plenty of room in both parking lots for stretches and other visual activities as well, but want to reiterate to be aware of where and how loud you play outside of warmup.  Your guides will walk with you and your groups to each place and we will have water stations set up in various locations.  The guides will help keep you on time but I encourage you to also keep track as well.  We want to avoid any major scheduling delays throughout the day.  The map marks the flow for bands from both lots with a yellow line.   All groups will enter and exit through the band entry gate, located near spectator parking (side B of the field).  Exiting groups will have the right of way, however, if a band is still on field performing, the next group can start sneaking in the stadium as long as it doesn’t disturb the performance.  We will have a plugin available at the 50 yard line as well as a generator on standby for use should anyone need it.  Our drum major stands will also be available, just let one of us know.  One note on traveling to the stadium: You will cross a ditch behind the stadium and the only bridge across is narrow and has rails.  The exact width is 87 inches at its narrowest and the railing is 43 inches tall.  Our side by side and open trailer just BARELY fit across it.  For most groups, this shouldn’t be a problem.  However, if you have an extra large prop you don’t need for warmup, I would recommend dropping it off at the prop storage (located by spectator parking down 6th street) right by the field.  Alternatively, if you have an extra large side by side and trailer, we will have a path down wall street, 4th street, and then up green avenue that avoids the bridge…..it’s just definitely the long way around.    

Trailers/side-by-side/props/etc:

We love our field and want to make sure it stays damage free.  That said, Tandem (2 axle) trailers are NOT allowed on the track/field.  Single axle trailers are fine.  The school is also picky about what vehicles are allowed on the field.  That said, we’ll have people stationed with our side by side to help out.  They will help make sure everything you bring gets on and off the field quickly and carefully.  Props can be placed in the prop staging area right by the entry gate throughout the day.  Please make sure you are careful hauling props on and off the field.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this and I’ll see what we can work out.

Awards/scores/video/etc:

Each school should have received a google drive folder from me already.  If you haven’t gotten that folder, let me know.  All the judge's comments, pictures of your performance, and a video of your performance will be placed in that folder that night.  It will be later in the evening before we get it all uploaded for everyone, so be patient, but I promise it will be there.  I thought this might get everyone home faster since we won’t have to wait on uploading everything to a usb.  

Awards will be given for the following:

Outstanding Drum Major, Soloist, Percussion, Colorguard, Music, Visual, Gen Effect awards for each class.

Overall Placement trophies for each class.

Bands receiving a rating of 1 or 2.

Top 5 bands regardless of size…..including grand champion.

Drum Majors (and whoever wants to join them) are asked to meet at the gate to the field located by the concession stands during the Panther Pride Exhibition.  They will be led out to the field for awards shortly after the performance ends.  After the award ceremonies, directors need to meet on the field to receive their judging sheets…all other material can be found in the google drive folder later that night (see above).

Inclement Weather:

We plan to host this event, rain or shine.  In the event we have bad weather we will first try to postpone the event in an attempt to resume it outside once the weather has passed.  If that is not possible, we will move into our arena and the competition will become a music only event.  Emails and/or texts will be sent immediately should any postponements or changes need to be made.    

Concessions/food trucks:

As you can see above, we are wanting to give out lots of “hardware”, pictures, and video for free to you all.  While we love being able to do that for you all, we also use this event as a major fundraising opportunity for the program and the majority of the funds raised comes from ticket sales and from our food trucks/concession stand.  That said, we want to offer an easy way to order food for your groups that you can pick up at a time you specify.  Attached to this email, you can find the order form with the food options available.  Look through the order form and if you would like to participate in that, send back your orders before the festival so we can make sure we have it prepared for your groups when you want it!  We will also have food trucks available that day.

Other bits of info:

• Palen Music will have a representative on site throughout the day to help out. 

• Mr. Dietz, along with some other helpers, will be around throughout the day to help put out fires, answer any questions you might have, or help you find something you might have forgotten at home. 

• I plan to hover near the stadium most of the day in case people need me there.  You can also talk to one of our many wonderful boosters/helpers should you have any questions and they’ll find an answer.

• Our head school nurse will be set up near the concession stand for anyone who needs medical attention.  She can also come to you if an emergency comes up, just get a hold of one of us.

• We have an amazing hospitality room set up for all drivers and directors on the top floor of the arena.  Please tell your drivers and be sure to come by yourself to grab some food and drink and hang out before/after your performance.  Mr. Dietz’s mom does a GREAT job setting that up for us every year.

• We will have festival shirts available for anyone who would like to purchase one.  I think they made 60 available and will be sold as a first come first serve basis.

• Bandgrams will be available to purchase for $2 a piece.

• A water station will be set up at the band entry/exit gate for your groups.

• If you have trash near your parking lot at the end of the day, please bag it up and place it off to the side near where you parked and we will come by and grab it after everyone has left for the evening.

• Lastly, we want this to be an event that you want to come back to every year so if there is anything we can do better, let us know and we will do our best to make it happen!