History of the Mid-Penn Band

     The Mid-Penn Band was founded by the late Russell Williams who was, at the time, a retired music teacher and director of the Sunbury City Band. He felt there was too much of an adversarial attitude among the various local bands. His hope was some of that could be eased by having an event in which the members of these ensembles could play and socialize together. An organizational meeting was held in the summer of 1988 that set up the initial event on September 11th, 1988, at Knoebels Amusement Park and Resort in Elysburg. Eight bands were a part of the first program. Of those eight, four are still active and participating members: the Catawissa Military Band, Danville Community Band, the Sunbury City Band, and the Repasz Band. The other four ensembles, which are no longer active, were the Sunbury Legion Band, Watsontown Centennial Band, Imperial Teteque Band and Our Shamokin Band. In 2010, the Bellefonte Community Band became a participating member. Host duties are rotated between the member bands.

​

     Founder Russell Williams served as coordinator until his death in 1993. He was succeeded by Rick Martin (1994-2001), and Stevan Galbreath (2002-2016), both of the Catawissa Military Band, and current coordinators Tom Gegenheimer (Sunbury City Band) and Jeff Dent (Repasz Band). Except for the 2011 program cancelled by flooding, the Mid-Penn Band had been a September fixture at Knoebels for 28 years.

​

     The organization decided to change venue for the 2017 festival to Central Oak Heights in Milton, Pennsylvania. COH provided a wonderful rehearsal and performance area that suited our needs perfectly. As a result of this change, the band more than doubled in size. We are thrilled to perform on June 22nd, 2019, at Central Oak Heights once more for the 31st Mid-Penn band festival.