Pie festival to entertain, feed attendees
Members of the Butler Golden Tornado Marching Band have been buying huge amounts of pie and pie ingredients around town for the past week.
All that pastry will be available with featured music at the annual Butler Marching Band Pie Festival, which is Wednesday at Art Bernardi Stadium.
Jeff Kroner, head director of the marching band, said the Pie Festival has been a tradition at the school for countless years and is an opportunity for band members to not only raise money but also to introduce themselves to the people who will be attending football games throughout the season.
“This is the first performance for the public; we will be doing pregame and halftime show,” Kroner said. “It was a good way to get the community in, they get to choose a piece of pie while they watch the show.”
According to Kroner, there are about 175 students in the band this year. They trained through three weeks of band camp and had one public performance in a parade at Kennywood, and the show Wednesday will be their first time demonstrating their field shows.
Kroner also said the band’s fundraisers have been so successful in recent years that four years ago administrators were able to eliminate the fees students had to pay to be in the group.
“Due to these fundraising activities, we eliminated that fee,” Kroner said. “It all goes to support the band, get things we need for games, it covers the banquet.”
Admission to the event is $6 and includes a piece of pie, ice cream and a drink. Tickets can be purchased from any band member or at the gate, which opens at 6:30 p.m. with a 7 p.m. start time.
