Crowd awaits march, joins in

By JENNIFER ROGERS
Staff Writer

As clocks along Main Street struck 11 a.m. Saturday, Brass Band aficionados moved toward the street's edges, lawn chairs and cameras in tow. They waited, squinting into the sun, until they could hear the first, faint sounds of the parade's brass bands moving toward the Centre College campus.

When the bands finally arrived, the crowd's silent wait was broken. Old men videotaped and photographed every minute, pausing only to take off their hats and wave when bands played a patriotic song. Old women clapped their hands, singing the words they knew. Children danced along the sidewalks, picking up candy thrown from fire trucks and shouting at the performers.

Two of those children were Ashley Howe, 10, of Danville, and her cousin, Sarah Hutchinson, also 10 -- but exactly one day older -- of Lexington. They had worked the night before to get ready for the parade's finale, when the Olympia Brass comes down Main Street and the entire crowd falls into march behind them.

And when that moment came, the girls were ready. Armed with umbrellas decorated at home, they were some of the first to join Olympia's march. It's one of their favorite parts of the festival, which they've both been to for five years.

"We like it all," said Howe. "It was very fun." She and Hutchinson decorated their umbrellas from leftover Christmas decorations.

"We wanted to get rid of them," Howe said. Her umbrella was bright blue, edged in silver tinsel. Hutchinson's was red, decorated with gold foil butterflies. As the Olympia Brass passed, the girls jumped from the street corner and danced behind them until they reached the campus, tinsel and foil shining in the sunlight, umbrellas pumping up and down.

As the bands and crowd dispersed on Old Centre's lawn, Nona and Richard Dierdorf of Indianapolis, Ind., pulled a member of the Olympia Brass aside. On the back of their Olympia T-shirts, bought at the festival a few years ago, they had signatures of every Olympia member but one, and needed to know which member they lacked. It turned out to be the band's new trumpet player.

Nona Dierdorf says for them, the festival has become a tradition.

"It's become a family thing," she said. "It's several generations now." The couple was first introduced to the festival by Richard's sister, Marian Sublette of Winchester. Sublette has been to the festival every year, and her husband plays in several bands.

Dierdorf says her granddaughter, Natasha, loves the festival but couldn't come this year. She said Natasha cried because she wouldn't get to see the Olympia band, which she calls "her band." The Dierdorfs had their nephew with them this year.

Dierdorf said one of her favorite bands in the parade this year was the band from Indianapolis, Ind., but that one of her all-time favorites was the Japanese band in last year's festival.

Under a large tree, Jeannette Davis of Danville had already moved from her parade vantage point in front of the Centre bookstore and was watching the large-screen television, an addition to the festival. Davis and all her friends manage to stake out the same trees for shade at the festival every year, marked by tiny American flags and striped ribbon.

"We just like to decorate," she said. "This is our tree." She said that the group always manages to wear patriotic clothes to match the festival's American spirit. One of her friends, Jane Marcum of Danville, said this year's parade was one of the best ones ever.

"I think it was fabulous," she said. "I think the Shriners add a lot to it." Marcum said she liked the new big-screen, because it helped her see close-ups of the soloists from her spot under the tree, surrounded by her family and friends.