MCHS had its annual Winter Band Festival on Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. in the Freshman Campus main gym.

At the band festival, Parkland Middle School and McHenry Middle School joined in and performed along with the concert and symphonic bands, as well as the wind ensemble.

Ryan Cabildo, director of bands at MCHS, says the purpose of this festival is to show the middle schoolers what’s going on in high school and to show them why they should continue to do band after middle school.

“My take on it is … to get middle schoolers excited about the idea of being in a high school band,” he says, “which is why we play a lot of music that is designed to be fun and different and exciting.”

The Winter Band Festival is an event made to share good music with the community as well as keeping young musicians interested in band through high school.