Setup took place Thursday inside Combes Gym.
Setup took place Thursday inside Combes Gym at Champaign Central High School.
Champaign Central’s 56th Jazz Fest kicks off at 5 p.m. today.
Organizers of one of the state’s longest-running high school festivals spent Thursday transforming historic Combes Gym into a swanky nightclub where dressed-to-the-hilt middle and high schoolers from Champaign, Mahomet, Rantoul, Paxton, Rantoul and Urbana will perform tonight and Saturday (also 5-10 p.m.)
The event includes an open-to-the-public, free-of-charge clinic at 3 p.m. Saturday put on by Ben Carrasquillo, a trombone professor at Eastern Illinois.
“The best part for the students is getting to play in front of other kids and to see what’s possible,” longtime Central band and orchestra director John Currey said. “Sixth-graders will watch the high school kids and then say ‘I want to be in that band one day.’ That’s a huge plus.”
Champaign Central director John Currey leads practice for the Lab Band, the youngest of the high school’s three jazz bands, on Thursday. The Maroons were prepping for this weekend’s 56th annual Jazz Fest at Central.