Central’s marching band will attend a competition this Saturday at Kansas State University with around 39 other schools.

The band will be playing “Daft Punk Medley” arranged by Tom Wallace, an arrangement of “Creep” by Radiohead, and “Danny Elfman Closer” arranged by Michael Brown with music from the movie “Beetlejuice.”

Director Guillermo Rodriguez explained that the reason he picked the songs he chose was to integrate art into music.

“[Marching band] is really borderline marching arts now, where you have to tell a story,” Rodriguez said. “Not just through your shapes, but through your body movement, and try to convey. It’s kind of like a theater show, but with music on the field, it’s a production.” 

Julian Lundberg said the band plans on getting a 1 (the highest rating) because they have proper practice and more dedicated members this year. 

“We have a lot more members this year in the band than at least last year,” Lundberg said. “A lot of them have a lot more drive, to do better and improve themselves, improve for the better of the band as a whole. So I think it’s just that the sense of passion in the band is greater than last year.”

Alexis Thompson said the benefit of proper practice may get the band further than last year.

“I think we have some better section leaders this year, including new freshmen this year,” Thompson said. “They are teaching people how to do well. We also had a pretty informational first week of showing people how to do the steps of marching.”

Rodriguez said that this is the first year that he feels truly prepared for this competition.

“[Winning] is not just going to be out of luck,” Rodriguez said. “If we get a 1, it would be because we know our stuff, so I hope we can do that. But if we don’t, at the end of the day, it’s still really good.”