20 bands to perform at Norwin band festival

Bands from 17 high schools in the region, two universities and the Norwin Alumni Band will perform in the Norwin Band Festival on Saturday at the Norwin High School stadium in North Huntingdon.

The Slippery Rock and Indiana University of Pennsylvania bands will join bands from Allegheny, Erie, Fayette and Westmoreland counties in the festival that begins at 2:45 p.m. The gates to the stadium will open at 1:30 p.m., and performances will continue until 8:15 p.m., when the awards will be presented.

Some of the bands will be performing in competition, while others will be playing a festival music show, said Candice Lackey, the Norwin Band Aides liaison to the Norwin School Board. The Band Aides are a community support group.

In addition to the musical performances, there will be bake sale, a raffle and candy grams. There will be 100th anniversary merchandise for sale, such as hoodies, shirts and hats, Lackey said.

Admission to the festival is $10 for adults and $8 for students and senior citizens. Parking will be available at the high school, middle school and Hillcrest Intermediate School.

The Norwin band, which has been in existence for a century, has 140 musicians and color guard members, said Tim Daniels, the Norwin band director since 2013 and a 2008 Norwin High School graduate.

The first Norwin High School Band had 28 members, and all were boys, when the band was formed in the 1923-24 school year. George Weaver was the Irwin High School band director from the late 1940s through the 1950s. Irwin and North Huntingdon dissolved their merged district in 1946, only to reinstate it along with North Irwin in 1958.