Gold Star Marching Band
| Gold Star Marching Band | |
|---|---|
 |
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| School | NDSU |
| Location | Fargo, ND |
| Conference | Missouri Valley Football Conference |
| Founded | 1902 |
| Director | Dr. Sigurd Johnson |
| Members | ~220 |
| Fight song | Fight Song (We are the Pride)" |
| Website | [1] |
The Gold Star Marching Band or also known as "The Pride of North Dakota" is the marching band of North Dakota State University. It is a non-auditioned band (with the exception of the battery section), open to all majors. With approximately 220 members, the band is one of the largest organizations on campus.
The GSMB does pregame and halftime performances for the NDSU Bison Football team in the Fargodome. The band usually plays seven shows a year including all home football games and usually one away game, marches the homecoming parade, and does a handful of other performances at NDSU and the Fargo-Moorhead area.
The GSMB practices Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 4:00-5:45pm, and Saturday morning rehearsals on game days. The band practices indoors in the music building of the Reineke Fine Arts Center. Outdoors, the band practices either on the football practice field, or Dacotah Field, which in 2009 was updated with brand new field turf. Despite starting band camp with warm temperatures, the band sometimes ends up practicing with snow on the field at the end of the season. The GSMB usually does not regularly practice in the Fargodome, only on game day mornings and days when the dome does not have a prior event.
Game Day for the band starts with morning rehearsal at the Fargodome. After morning rehearsal the band has a later call time to be in the band room of the music building. At call, all sections are accounted for and uniforms inspected. The band then goes outside to start the march over. The march over is a seven or so block parade-style march from the music building, through the NDSU campus, up to the Fargodome.
Once at the dome, the band performs pregame consisting of a field entrance, On Bison fanfare to different sides of the stadium, On Bison while marching down the field, a patriotic song (Grand Old Flag or Battle Hymn of the Republic), and an adaptation of the North Dakota state song while forming the shape of the star. The band plays the NDSU alma mater The Yellow and The Green and directly after the song the announcer proclaims "We ARE the Pride of North Dakota" the band then forms "NDSU" while playing Fight Song (We are the Pride) and forms "BISON" facing the student section side of the dome. The band marches towards the team entrance, forms a tunnel for the team to run out, and plays On Bison as the team runs out. When the lights come back on, the band plays the Star-Spangled Banner, and finally the exits the field.
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Wikipedia