The 18th annual Menehune Classic marching band festival returns this weekend with a different format to adhere to COVID precautions. 

“We are going to have two different staging areas, and there will be 45 minutes between (band performances) instead of the usual 15,” Moanalua High School Music Director Elden Seta said. 

In the past, multiple bands assembled on different parts of the campus and waited for their turn on the side of the athletic field. Now, with the need to social distance, bands must arrive at a certain time, come to the field at a certain time and then leave, Seta explained.

“We will livestream the event for the public, and then after a performance, the screen will say, ‘come back in 45 minutes for (the next school),’” Seta said. 

Despite the changes in procedures and turnout (only seven out of the usual ten bands are participating this year), the students of Moanalua’s marching band are ready to put on a grand show with their peers around the island. 

“I am very excited,” senior Kolby Yamamoto, one of the drum majors,  said. “Especially since last year, we were supposed to have one performance and that would have been Mene Classic, but it was canceled. So to have the opportunity to have Mene Classic for my last year is very exciting.”

COVID has affected how marching bands can be carried out, but the drive of the marching band has not withered, with all 117 members practicing three times a week in order to perform at their best.

“I still think it will be a good showcase of everyone, not only Moanalua students, but everyone’s hard work,” Yamamoto said. 

The event will be streamed on the marching band’s Youtube channel band1 on Saturday afternoon to support the bands participating in 2021’s Menehune Classic. Individual livestream links are available for each school on band1’s homepage under the section “upcoming livestreams”, displaying the time when they will be performing. The first show starts at 4:15 pm with Moanalua having the grand finale at 8:45 pm.