Litchfield’s solidly rich tradition as a community with deep roots in its support for high school marching bands was much enhanced a week ago Tuesday by the splendid way the initial Parade of Marching Bands unfolded.

Credit for the success of the event lies with the entire community but especially to the newly created Litchfield Visitors Bureau and particularly to Chamber of Commerce Secretary Judy Hulterstrum and her six member volunteer group, Cathy Haugo, Karen Langmo, Shane Zeppelinm, Mitzi Johnson and Mike and Jill Smith, who dedicated endless hours toward making the event such a success.

Chamber head Hulterstrum said her group learned a few things from this initial event. One is that most top-flight bands do a street show in the line of march. However a few – two in the case of this event – prefer to do field shows which require a wider street than what was available on our parade route.

Reactions of band members, Judy said, were very favorable, and she notes that some 1,100 marchers were involved, ranging from the 195-member Waconia Marching band to the Sartell unit, which has 35 marchers.

“We could have moved it along a little quicker,” Judy said. “But we wanted to make sure each band had time to do its routine.”

Each band was assigned two hosts. This group was drawn from former members of the Dragon Marching Band.

All 1,100 marchers were treated to a post-parade lunch of a hot dog, chips and bottle of water provided by local firms. Planning is already underway for next year’s event.

On the important financial front the event did very well. Almost $12,000 was raised in various contributions, and the two lunch stands, which did such a good business, netted $7,300. These figures covered costs and left an amount to make a nice contribution to the Dragon Marching Band.

In all it was simply a banner band day for Litchfield, spotlighting a positive image of our town among the many communities, which had bands in the line of march.