Hart High School band and color guard members hosted 34 other bands from across southern California Saturday at the 34th annual Hart Rampage Marching Band Field Tournament.

Throughout the day, the groups performed live renditions of songs at the College of the Canyons stadium in the hope of winning at the tournament and qualify for the championship competition.

Because they are hosting the event and could potentially have an unfair advantage, Hart students were not competing for the event trophy. But Director of Bands Anthony Bailey said the results still mattered.

“Obviously, we don’t take trophies,” he said. “But It is a qualifying event for championships, so our score matters. It’s important to us. We just don’t take awards.”

Despite not being in the running for the trophy, Bailey said his students have improved dramatically in the run-up to the event.

“I think they did great,” he said. “I think it’s really indicative of their hard work and the things that we’ve been trying to fix are definitely starting to stick. You’re starting to see the maturity in their performance.”

The 35-band competition was maxed out on competitors, just like previous years. A wait-list was even set up because more bands wanted to compete than were able, Bailey said.

“The way we host Rampage is definitely one of the top events in the country,” Bailey said. “To us, it’s about hospitality. We want our groups to feel great about what’s happening here. We want them to have an experience.”

Hart subverted the usual performances, according to Bailey, and performed music from the silver screen. He said he was inspired by a television show called “Feud,” which made him think of old Hollywood music.

“Bands have done a lot of movie themes, and they tend to do the traditional John Williams kind of stuff stuff. I wanted to focus on a little bit of old Hollywood,” he said. “I wanted to put that out on the field. There’s so much great music from that era.”

Film and television music from the era of Psycho and Gone with the Wind is an underutilized genre, he said, one that many bands shy away from because it is from a relatively recent era.

“If we think about movie music, it hasn’t been around for very long. I wanted to introduce the kids to some of the classics of that genre,” Bailey said. “When we thinks of classics, it doesn’t always have to be Beethoven and Bach.”

The approximately students from the band and color guard banding together for the tournament was an incredible sight to see, the music teacher said.

“It really takes a team,” said Bailey. “I’m really appreciative of everybody involved.”

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