The Sherburne Fire Department is a bit different from your ordinary fire departments in our region.
Indeed, they fight fires, provide ambulance service and perform rescues. But a lot more of the firefighters’ and auxiliary work of the department is music to the ears of thousands, and has been for the last 75 years. They sponsor the annual Sherburne Pageant of Bands.
The annual three-day event will kick off Thursday and peak at noon Saturday, June 1, when tens of thousands will line the Main Street of Sherburne for the pageant parade. The Thursday, May 30 and Friday, May 31 events will take place from 4 to 8 p.m. at Sherburne-Earlville Middle/High School.
While any typical year’s pageant is packed with music and entertainment, James Behret, pageant co-coordinator, said several school bands will be marching in it for the first time, and some entertainment groups at the awards stage will include the 101st Army Rock Band, and DownBeat Percussion, the official drum line of the Buffalo Bills. Both will perform at the end of the parade at the school stadium.
“It’s a good way to hype up things for this milestone year,” Behret said.
Amy Hoxie, pageant co-coordinator, said with Sherburne-Earlville Central School as the pageant host, both groups from the school will be paying a musical tribute to the late Jeff Manwaring, who was a band director and musical instructor at Sherburne-Earlville for 18 years.
Both Behret and Hoxie are fairly new as co-coordinators for the pageant, but know the pageant very well, as Behret marched in it while a student at Sherburne-Earlville, and Hoxie marched as a student at New Berlin Central School. Before coming to Sherburne-Earlville, Hoxie directed area bands that marched in the pageant.
The Sherburne Pageant of Bands is now one of only two such gatherings remaining in New York state. In the last several years the pageant has drawn bands from as far away as South Dakota, Iowa, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. The origin of the pageant came from another gathering seen thousands of miles away.
Albert Whitney, a Sherburne resident, was serving in the Navy Seabees during World War II. He happened to be in Okinawa for an Easter service and witnessed a massed band presentation. So impressed by the event, Whitney eventually brought the idea home to Sherburne, creating what we know today as the annual Sherburne Pageant of Bands.
Once home, Whitney met with the Sherburne Central School band director, Frank L. Miller. The two of them often talked about Whitney’s experience in Okinawa, and how they might stage something similar in the village. The idea came to fruition, and joining Whitney and Miller in coordination were school principal Thomas Lotz, and fire chiefs Jesse Chantler and Bill Champ.
At first, the contest was called the Sherburne Band Festival. The first event was on Saturday evening, Sept. 17, 1949. The initial participating schools were Earlville, Gilbertsville, Greene, Hamilton, New Berlin, Norwich, Oxford and West Winfield. Many of these schools have since merged with others. The bands participated in a concert band contest as well as a parade competition. At the end of the evening, a massed band concert was held. About 400 musicians took part while a crowd of 4,000 watched the performances.
The creators of the festival knew they had founded a winning event, so they went to work on a second annual festival. Ten bands participated in the event. The weather can be fairly cold on September nights, so the organizers decided to move the event to the month of June and made it a daytime event. The tradition continues to this day.
Looking forward after the 75th anniversary, Hoxie is optimistic for the pageant’s future.
“Hopefully 75 more,” she said. “If the community and the students, the parents and all of the other groups are still ready to go, everyone will keep it going. We just hope everybody has a good time and enjoys the experience.”
For additional information, visit https://tinyurl.com/3et8v74n