Performance Dates:
Sundays: Jan 19, Jan 26 & Feb 2 at 1:00pm
Wednesdays: Jan 22 and Jan 29 at 6:30pm
Fridays: Jan 17 & Jan 24 at 6:30pm
The band is run by Aron Friedman, a music teacher at Palm Springs Middle School. He still plays the horn in the band, making him the rare band director who plays in the ranks of his own marching band.
“I just love to play,” Friedman told me. “I went to the University of Kentucky and was one of those kids who loved the marching band.” Friedman explained that the South Florida Fair band is a real community ensemble. Some of the marchers are middle school students who are just learning their instruments, while others are retirees in their 70s who have been playing, or not playing, for decades.
About half the band is made up of teenagers, and the rest are adults reliving a version of their high school or college experiences.