Every year after the marching season ends (after Grand Nationals), we conduct voting to decide which bands to name “Bands of the Year.” This year’s voting consisted of 22 voters, which consisted of Illinois Marching Online staff members, State of Illinois band directors, and Illinois judges – the largest turnout to vote we’ve had to date. All of the bands listed below have achieved high quality compared to their peers, and are worth of special honor.

A quick explanation of how we do this, as it changed a little bit this year:  Every band that competed this year in Illinois is eligible.  We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 bands compete in-state this season.  The bands are divided up based on school size, and we have our divisions.   To figure out the bands of the year, we set up a format of 10 bands for Division 1, 8 for Division 2, 6 for Division 3 and 4 for Division 4.  The points are awarded based on where a vote ends up.  Band “A” gets a 3rd place vote in Division 2.  There are 8 spots in Division 2, so this band would be awarded 6 points.

A few more facts for you:  We had 27 bands voted for in Division 1,  21 in Division 2, 22 in Division 3, and 17 in Division 4.

Without further ado, the 2009 Illinois Marching Online Bands of the Year!

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2009 Illinois Marching Online Bands of the Year

2008 Bands of the Year
2006 Bands of the Year
2005 Bands of the Year
2004 Bands of the Year
2003 Bands of the Year
2002 Bands of the Year