Commissioner David Richardson requested at the February 9, 2022 Commission meeting to place an item for discussion on the Finance and Economic Resiliency Committee agenda to discuss providing funding to the Miami Beach Senior High School Marching Band for uniforms.
A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform that includes an associated organization's colors, name or symbol. Most high school marching bands, and some college marching bands, are accompanied by a color guard, a group of performers who add a visual interpretation to the music through the use of props, most often flags, rifles, and sabers.
Marching bands are generally categorized by function, size, age, instrumentation, marching style, and type of show they perform. In addition to traditional parade performances, many marching bands also perform field shows at sporting events and marching band competitions. Increasingly, marching bands perform indoor concerts that implement many songs, traditions, and flair from outside performances. In some cases, at higher level competitions, bands will be placed into classes based on school size.
Per Miami Dade County Public Schools Office of Visual and Performing Arts, there are currently 65 high schools in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Of those, about half have active marching bands that perform during athletic events like football games. In Spring, they pivot to a concert band.