The Northwestern University Marching Band will not play a pregame show before the inaugural football game at NU’s new, $875 million Ryan Field Friday, a decision that raised anxiety for community members who feared the absence would become permanent.
The Daily Northwestern first reported the marching band’s absence from a pregame event Thursday. Instead, the band is slated to perform at “The Great Chicago Food Festival” on the $875 million stadium’s festival grounds. This breaks a tradition before Wildcat games, where the marching band has performed fight songs like “Rise, Northwestern!” for years, although it will still perform during halftime.
Multiple NU marching band alumni members echoed that anxiety to the Tribune, including 2011 graduate Alex Hurd, who said he was “hurt” by the announcement.
“Every Big Ten school has a marching band tradition that embodies the spirit of that institution…NUMB always screams onto the field and forms the classic sculpted N,” Hurd said. “Our alma mater should honor these traditions and keep our pregame spirit uniquely Northwestern.”
Fellow NU and marching band class of 2009 alum Brittany Williams also expressed concern about overall control of Friday’s pregame show, which, according to the Daily Northwestern, is produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment. She feels the decision to have an outside group produce the show is “more in line with the objectives of a professional sports franchise than a storied college football program.”
“Sidelining a century of marching band tradition – not to mention the more than 100 students who learned and rehearsed this music and drill, excited to be part of this historical milestone – for a flyover and a food fest is a slap in the face to the entire Northwestern community,” Williams said.
Beyond that, comments supporting the traditional pregame performance swirled on social media, with the marching band’s alumni group calling the news “incredibly upsetting” and advocating for a public commitment from the university to hold a pregame show before every home game in a post Thursday afternoon.
“…NUMB pregame is more than a performance. It is a tradition that connects generations of Northwestern students, alumni, family and fans,” the post read. “It is what makes a Northwestern football Saturday (or Friday) feel like Northwestern.”
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That call was answered Friday morning.
The university confirmed in a statement Friday that the band will perform their pregame show this season, writing that “the plan for the Homecoming game next week and for future games is for the band to have the opportunity to play on the field as part of pregame activities.”
“Amid all the buzz around the new Ryan Field, there have been assumptions that the Northwestern University Marching Band has been sidelined at the opening game — or that the band has been excluded from playing on the field before games in the future,” the statement read. “This is simply not accurate.”
Regarding Friday’s opening game at Ryan Field, there is only a limited window between conference-mandated player warmups and the start of the game, NU Vice President of global marketing and communications Jon Yates said in a statement to the Tribune.
“As is appropriate for the opening of a new stadium, that window tonight will be used for stadium dedication activities,” he said.
Yates described the marching band as one of NU’s “most cherished and revered traditions” and an “integral part” of home football games.
“Amid all the buzz around the new Ryan Field, there have been assumptions that the Northwestern University Marching Band has been sidelined at the opening game — or that the band has been excluded from playing on the field before games in the future,” the statement read. “This is simply not accurate.”
The update comes hours before the Wildcats face off against the Penn State Nittany Lions. The opener is a sellout of the 35,000-seat stadium, touted as “the best stadium in all of football,” and features seats with armrests and cupholders, a standing section for 2,000 students, and additional student seating.