Sacramento State will host the first Western Band Association (WBA) NorCal Super Show Saturday at Hornet Stadium. 

The WBA NorCal Super Show will feature many competing high school marching bands and color guard groups from Northern California and Reno with Sacramento State performing last as an exhibition.

Santiago Sabado, music professor and director of athletic bands at Sac State, said he is excited about the upcoming Super Show. According to Sabado, Sac State’s marching band and color guard teams mainly do traveling exhibitions, where the team travels to other campuses and perform, and are rarely given the opportunity to host an event such as this one. 

“Through (the WBA) and our relationship with local high schools, we were able to get them all to come here, which is exciting for us because we do traveling exhibitions,” Sabado said. “We go and perform, which we are still doing this year, but this is nice where we’re actually bringing people here to our turf so they can have experience here.”  

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Santiago said he looks forward to competitive high school bands being able to see the difference between high school and college marching band, as he sees high school band as more competition-centered while college marching band is more entertainment-centered.

Sabado said the preparation for the NorCal Super Show has been ongoing since spring of last year.

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Amanda Lopes, a music education major and student conductor for the marching band, said preparation and practices have been running smoothly for the show and she looks forward to what the show will do for the Sac State marching band.

“I think it’s going to be a really good thing that we’re hosting,  it’s going to encourage all the local and Bay Area high schools and their music programs to come to Sac State and see what we have to offer,” Lopes said. “So I think it will be a really good thing for Sacramento State as well as the School of Music.”

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Marching band trumpet players Ivan Madrigal, an economics major, and Samuel Elmore, a music major, said they are both excited for the NorCal Super Show and the chance to make their marks as part of the event’s first edition.

“This is my last year of band,” Elmore said. “It’s a ‘going out with a bang’ sort of thing (for me).”

The WBA NorCal Super Show will be at Hornet Stadium Saturday. Tickets for this show are available for purchase online as well as at the box office.