Kentucky high school marching bands begin  work on their competition show weeks before the academic school year begins, often in mid-July, with hopes that all of the hard work will lead them to the state marching band championships. Well, time for practice is almost over and the competition begins for each class state title this weekend.
This 2013 semi-final championship competitions will be held in various locations around Louisville, Saturday, Oct. 26 between 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and final competition will be held at 6 p.m. at Papa John Stadium on the University of Louisville campus.
Eighty Kentucky bands will compete against others in their class during the daytime semi-finals and the top four bands in each class, a total of 20 bands, will continue on to final competition that same evening to determine the state champion for each class.
Lexington is proud to send four marching bands to Louisville on Saturday: Henry Clay High School, Lafayette High School, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and Tates Creek High School .  All four bands are in the same class – 5A -and will compete against each other in the hopes of moving on to the final competition and a possible state championship. Class 5-A is scheduled to perform at Papa John Stadium for  semi-final  competition.
Lafayette is the reigning 5A champion and  has won 17th state titles total, Dunbar has won seven state titles.