Thirteen bands on the full day schedule

(Seguin) – The sound of marching bands will again fill Matador Stadium Saturday as Seguin High School hosts its ninth annual Seguin Marching Festival. The event each year brings hundreds of student musicians and their supporters to town for a full day of competition.

The festival is scheduled to go on as planned despite the possibility of rain. Organizers say they are hopeful the weather will move through before the competition begins.

Heather Brown, Seguin ISD color guard director and Impact Performing Arts Center coordinator, says the festival has become an important annual event for both the band program and the community.

“So. this is our ninth marching festival that we’ve hosted at Seguin High School. It is our largest fundraiser for the Seguin band program. We host bands all the way up into the Austin area — all the way down, across the greater San Antonio area,” said Brown.

This year’s competition will feature 13 visiting bands representing Class 3A, 4A and 6A schools. Brown sasy bands will compete within their individual classifications during preliminaries before coming together for finals, where they will compete for the festival’s grand champion trophy.

Participating schools this weekend will include Ingram Tom Moore High School, Natalia High School, Odem High School, Luling High School, Hondo High School, Travis High School, Navarro High School, Del Rio High School, Canyon High School, San Marcos High School, Holmes High School, Steele High School and Wagner High School.

Brown says the festival also gives visiting students and families an opportunity to spend time in Seguin, whether they’re grabbing a drink between performances or stopping for a meal.

“They love Arlans, believe it or not, they love being able to go and steps away from where they park their buses to go and get, you know, a quick Gatorade, and then they’ll go and feed their kids, you know, now we have options of Chick-fil-A, and there’s other restaurants in town. With all these events that we have now, it’s just helping our community grow,” said Brown.

The bands visiting will compete throughout the day, with the Seguin Matador Band scheduled to perform in exhibition at 8:45 p.m.

Brown says Saturday night’s performance will offer a chance to see the 2026 show in its entirety. She says because of this year’s weather, the band has had only one opportunity to perform its show at home so far.

“So, please come out and see our own Matador band at 8:45 on Saturday night. It’s going to be the first time we do the entire show. We still have one more sneaky surprise that’s going to come out later next week,” said Brown.

The festival will be held Saturday, Oct. 3, at Seguin High School’s Matador Stadium. Admission is $15 for adults and $8 for students. There is no charge for children 5 and younger. Tickets can be purchased with cash or card at the gate.

Local residents are also reminded that Cedar Street will be closed temporarily on Saturday to allow the visiting bands to move safely from their warm-up area to the stadium.