Color and movement combine with music and dance to tell a story and to show magnificent spirit.
Killeen ISD presents the 46th annual Spirit Spectacular with five high school bands and 12 middle school bands set to paint a breathtaking work of art spread across 100 yards at Leo Buckley Stadium.
This year’s showcase is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, September 21. Tickets are $10. Proceeds benefit the band boosters.
Like last year, Spirit Spectacular includes the Chaparral, Ellison, Harker Heights, Shoemaker and Killeen high school bands presenting their contest shows with their color guards and in some cases dance teams and even choral performers.
To conclude the show, the 12 middle school bands will join the combined high school bands for a grand finale with 1,000-plus students on the field.
Spirit Spectacular began the year that Ellison High School opened in 1978. The first Screaming Eagle Band presented a showoff to end its summer band camp.
From there, it moved to Buckley Stadium and included the Killeen Roo Band and eventually brought in a variety of area high school and middle school bands before becoming an annual showcase for KISD’s four high schools and two years ago, five high schools.
Last year, Ellison Band Director Erik Reynolds initiated a new format, combining with the Middle School Extravaganza that the Harker Heights Red Brigade Band sponsored, creating the combined KISD high school and middle school showcase.
This year’s event will bring a new element, celebrating some selected individual band students to honor through a series of videos.
“The focus is not just to highlight the performances, but some individual students, too,” Reynolds said. “The tagline is ‘Yes you can.’ We have students who are excelling in academics, athletics and other areas.”
During this year’s show, audience members will get to see videos of a student representing each high school who is successful in activities outside of band.
The Ellison band director, an EHS graduate and former Eagle band member said the new format is really a throwback to when Spirit Spectacular included the larger community.
“It was middle schools and high schools when the district was much smaller,” he said. “We’re trying to have that district unity right before things get competitive. It’s something fun for everyone.”
High school marching contests take place through much of October with the Region 8 competition set for October 19 at Midway High School’s Panther Stadium.
“One of the biggest comments from last year’s show was how the middle school band students got to see a full high school marching show and see what they have to look forward to in high school,” he said.
“We’re excited. We have lots of support from the campuses, from the district, parents, kids, we’re looking forward to a really fantastic event.”
Buy tickets at https://www.spiritspectaculartickets.com/
Take a look at our gallery of photos featuring last year's Spirit Spectacular and images of this year's halftime band performances: https://www.flickr.com/photos/killeenisd/albums/72177720320231608/
