The Vandal marching band gathers a week before the start of the academic year to prepare for their performances at Vandal football games. With this preparation, they planned for an early game against Washington State University to start off the school year.
The Cougar marching band invited the Vandals to perform with them on their field on Aug. 30. The two universities created a mass band of 550 participants, including the stunning Vandal Spirit Squad.
Together they prepped and played a Lady Gaga set — Vandals playing “Bad Romance” and Cougars rocking “Abracadabra” — moving the audience with their outstanding sound and beautiful visuals from the color guard.
Despite competition on the field between the football players, Spencer Martin, the director of the Vandal marching band, saw this as an opportunity for collaboration between bands.
This will be the third time Martin has collaborated the Vandal and Cougar bands to perform at their field, with previous performances in 2016 and 2022.
According to Martin, this was the first time they had siblings and a freshly married couple collaborating in the bands. WSU baton twirler Chloe Wooten is UI feature twirler Abby Wooten’s older sister. She said that she was “looking forward to being back on the field with her” since their passion for their schools put them together for the game.
Ethan and Guin Melhouse-Steel, a WSU trumpet and UI alto saxophone player, respectively, got married in May. Guin was excited to perform with her husband and collaborate with the WSU band for the second time. “We have such an amazing community,” she said.
Putting in a lot of hard work and dedication paid off for both the Vandals and the Cougars as their performance went off without a hitch. “This band has been ready as it’s ever been. The amount of work, you could not ask for the Vandal Band to work any harder,” said Martin.
Jaelynn Durels can be reached at [email protected].