https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_etGUk-lfMo
By: Fletcher Cowden
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.- Game day for the Arkansas Razorback marching band looks very different this season football season due to COVID-19.
Before the band members returned to campus the band’s staff got to work on planning out how they could operate maintaining social distancing and following covid guidelines. Rules and restrictions were laid out by the South Eastern Confrence, Center for Disease Control, and University of Arkansas.
Dr. Benjamin Lorenzo, head band director of the Razorback marching band said that The Best in Sight and Sound was a part of several research studies involving other collegiate bands across the country.
“We were part of several research studies that we were funding with a lot of other universities, then those research studies gave us data and recommendations that we can do to safely.”
The band’s staff reevaluated every aspect of their schedule.
“In a nutshell we really went through everything we did from practices to how we were going to deal with food.”
One of the precautions the band took was splitting it in half. This created the red and white bands. These two bands alternate every other home game. From there the bands are then split again in half, one band covering the first half of the football game and the other taking the second.
The Razorback band must also wear their facemask when not playing along with keeping social distancing while sitting in the stands.
Since they are not allowed on the field at halftime an increase in stand tunes and chants reminds the 7,000 hog fans in Razorback stadium that the band is still there.