HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – On the eve of the Sun Belt Conference Basketball Championship, fans, mascots and cheerleading squads will converge on Summit Arena to support their schools.
But there won’t be any basketballs or hoops.
Instead, they will be there to see a little more than 500 musicians throw on their school colors and fill Horner Hall to take part in the Sun Belt Conference Pep Band Spectacular. The event, scheduled for Friday, March 6, at 7 p.m., will kick off the championship weekend and provide fans with the opportunity to enjoy the music in a family-friendly, relaxed atmosphere.
“Bands and spirit squads are such an integral part of college athletics,” SBC Associate Commissioner for Sports Administration Rick Mello said. “We thought it would be a fitting tribute to highlight the talents of those students as a part of the entertainment.”
Admission to the concert is free, and complimentary hot dogs, popcorn and Coke products will be available.
This will mark the second year that the Sun Belt will hold the event. The popularity of the inaugural concert made it a great success and a tradition the conference wanted to continue. But it almost never happened.
Bad weather forced the accompanying fireworks show to fall through last year, and there was strong consideration to cancel the entire concert.
But the band members wouldn’t have it. They wanted to play and show their spirit. So they gained entrance to South Alabama’s auxiliary gym and created a makeshift concert venue to perform and entertain the crowd.
“The people who showed up loved it,” Mello said. “And I think it was the spontaneity of it. The mascots were dancing with each other, the dance teams got up. Everybody got involved.”
Weather won’t be an issue this year as the event will take place inside the arena.
UALR band director Chuck Law took a lead role in helping to organize the 2009 Pep Band Spectacular, and he said this year’s show will be a little bit bigger than the previous one, and a vocal piece will be added following the national anthem when one of the band directors joins the UALR Trojan Band to sing “God Bless the U.S.A.”
Because of the enthusiasm surrounding last year’s concert, the format will generally remain the same. Each band representing the 13 Sun Belt schools will perform two pieces from its repertoire, there will be a mass performance from all the bands, and individual members from each band will combine to form the Sun Belt Band, which will perform a tribute to the 70s with a Classic Rock Medley.
“Even with the weather fiasco last year, everything worked out well, and everybody had a good time,” Law said. “We’ve tried to keep consistent with a good plan and improve on what we already had. It’s an exciting time right now, and it’s been fun to watch the programs develop.”
Doors to Horner Hall in Summit Arena will open at 6 p.m. as fans, friends and family are invited to watch, listen and enjoy the show.
