Prairie High School’s Jazz Band traveled to the Lionel Hampton jazz festival in Moscow, Idaho at the University of Idaho on April 21st-23rd to compete in one of the top 3 biggest jazz festivals on the west coast.

Prairie’s jazz band had the exciting opportunity to participate in the weekend-long competition and got to compete alongside thousands of other students during the competition. 

Such a big event with so many participants calls for lots of categories to compete in, “Jazz combos, any other athletics, Singe A, double A, triple A, quadruple A, Competition levels and many more.” states Mr. Messling. Prairie was competing in a large ensemble, triple-A, and Double A. Prairie Jazz 1 ended up being a runner-up to first place which is a great achievement for the Falcons. Prairie competed on Saturday and got to watch the other bands perform on Sunday and take everything in.

Jazz members just getting the experience of attending an event like this is just an honor itself, “I was excited to come back to perform, My favorite part about going was being able to listen to as much Jazz as possible and hanging out with my other bandmates.” says senior band member Ricardo Martin Del Campo. Lots of hard work and practice went into getting ready for an event from all the jazz members. “Overall I’d describe our trip as a good way to end our competition season off. I am proud of all the work that everyone in our band did and the fact that we accomplished so much. We were all very thankful to the staff at the University of Idaho and extremely thankful to Mr.Messling for making this all happen,” says Ricardo Martin Del Campo.

The Prairie Jazz band did a fantastic job at the festival and continues to make Prairie proud as they continue with these competitions and all the hard work that each and every one of them put in.