www.SouthernMinn.com | Thursday, June 17, 2021 | Page 1C
Pandemic makes for a unique Harry Wenger Marching Band Festival By ANNIE GRANLUND annie.granlund@apgsomn.com While thousands of spectators won’t be able to watch marching bands parade through Owatonna’s streets this year, Harry Wenger Marching Band Festival organizers hope the community will find other ways to bring their enthusiasm to the event. Leslea Partridge, president of the festival board, is encouraging people to have fun and gather with their friends and family for backyard watch parties. That way residents can still enjoy the festival via the livestream while respecting the bands and judges during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. The festival will be livestreamed at owatonnabandfestival. com, owatonnalive.com or on the Harry Wenger Marching Band Festival’s Facebook page. Owatonna’s streets will still be very busy with the 13 participating bands this year, but for a second consecutive year, the pandemic has wrought large changes for the festival. It was canceled last year and this year’s festival will be an abbreviated version, Partridge said. But it just means that orga-
FESTIVAL DETAILS The Harry Wenger Marching Band Festival will return to Owatonna at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 19. Though the festival will be closed off to in-person spectators, the festival will be livestreamed at OwatonnaBandFestival. com, owatonnalive.com and the Harry Wenger Band Festival’s Facebook page. nizers are looking forward to a normal festival in 2022. “Next year, we’ll be back in full force and we’re really looking forward to that,” Partridge said. The festival is going spectatorless this year at the request of the bands and directors who wanted to still have a competi- Wenger tion while also keeping everyone safe, Partridge said. Although COVID-19 restrictions have loosened and the number of cases has taken a nose dive as more and more residents are vaccinated, planning for the festival began while restrictions Partridge
were still tightly regulated. “As much as we would love to have it go back to normal we have to stay on this path,” Partridge said. “Out of respect of the bands, schools and judges who are coming and the safety of our community – which is still at the forefront – we won’t have spectators this year.” Though the festival will look extremely different without the thousands of spectators who typically come out to enjoy the marching band competition, Partridge said the board is ecstatic to welcome back the bands June 19. Partridge said she specifically heard from the band directors a strong desire to bring the festival back and give the students the opportunity to compete and be judged. “It really became evident last year that we made the right decision, and of course we were all very disappointed, but out of that desire from the band directors to give their kids this opportunity we were ready to go ahead with a new format,” Partridge said. At this point, bands have two years worth of rookies. Students new to marching band last year weren’t able to have a festival experience because of canceled events amid the pandemic last year, she said. According to Partridge, the judging team that the festival works with each year had developed a new judging format that would allow bands to either compete in person or send in a video of their performance. Throughout the season, marching bands will be competing against themselves instead of against one another. The bands will still practice on their normal streets, Partridge said, and perform one time in “play zone one” located next to Trinity Lutheran Church. “We are encouraging people to get the jab so we can come fully come back and have a lot of fun next year,” Partridge said, encouraging residents to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. “It will be a whole different story next year.” About Harry Wenger Since its inaugural year, the Harry Wenger Marching Band Festival continues to be a fitting tribute to one of Owatonna’s leading businessmen, whose lifelong relationship with music started as a passion which became his livelihood and ultimately spurred the creation of a multi-million dollar corporation with a global presence. However, Harry Wenger is not simply remembered as a business mogul, but the “The Music Man” – a hard-working innovator with a wide practical streak and a soft heart. He is perhaps best described by a telling line in a tract written for his memorial service in 1992: “Harry had square, efficient, expressive hands – hands that could direct a symphony, devise an intricate mechanism, clean fish, skin a deer, pat a child on the head or caress a loved one,” it reads. Wenger made his way to Owatonna in 1936 where he took over the school’s music department. During this time, he began tinkering in the basement of his house on Mitchell Street, trying to create a better conducting baton or music stand. In 1946, he created and patented a special chair to help children balance the sousaphone. That
In this June 2015 file photo, Berlyn Staska, who was the grand marshal, rides in the Harry Wenger Marching Band Festival parade with Kathleen Staska. This year’s festival won’t include a parade due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Press file photo)
The 2016 Owatonna High School Marching Band performs in exhibition as the host band for the Harry Wenger Marching Band Festival. The festival returns to Owatonna on Saturday, June 19, following a year hiatus due to COVID-19. The festival will not be open to spectators as a continued precaution in relation to the pandemic. (File photo/southernminn.com) same year, he officially formed the Wenger ComThis year, the Wenger Corporation will celebrate pany. He retired from teaching to give his full at- its 75th anniversary. tention to the manufacturing company in 1953.