History
Seven different bands have earned the title of Grand Champion: Long Prairie (1985); Henry Sibley (1986); Litchfield (1987-1990, 1998); Irondale (1991-1996); Park Center (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012); Mankato Lancers (2000, 2002, 2010); and Waconia (2004-2006, 2009). Since 1989 the festival has presented traveling flags to the Grand Champion and Class Champion bands. A band can retire a flag in its honor by winning the title three consecutive years. Two bands have retired Grand Champion flags: Irondale (1993, 1996) and Waconia (2006). Seven bands have retired Class Champion flags: Bertha-Hewitt (1991, 1997), Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg (2011), Litchfield (1991, 1994, 1997, 2000), Long Prairie (1995, 1998), Park Center (1999), Sauk Rapids-Rice (2009) and Winona Cotter (1994, 2006, 2009).
Participants and spectators have developed traditions surrounding the event, such as intense last-minute rehearsals, potluck meals along the parade route, and a spirited awards ceremony.
The event has inspired other communities across the state to start similar parade competitions.
Read more about this topic: Vikingland Band Festival
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.”
—Lytton Strachey (1880–1932)
“The steps toward the emancipation of women are first intellectual, then industrial, lastly legal and political. Great strides in the first two of these stages already have been made of millions of women who do not yet perceive that it is surely carrying them towards the last.”
—Ellen Battelle Dietrick, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“As History stands, it is a sort of Chinese Play, without end and without lesson.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)