Thailand’s top marching bands battle at Bangkok stadium this Sunday

Four student bands — two from the city and two from Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) — will perform before about 1,500 spectators. Free tickets for the event were swept up within 26 minutes of registration opening last Monday.

Spectators will be screened with antigen tests on entry to the stadium, located next to Ramkhamhaeng University in Bang Kapi district.

Scheduled to start at 2pm and end at 4.30pm, the show will be broadcast live on Thai PBS and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s Public Relations Facebook page.

Taking part in the musical extravaganza are Suthiwararam Concert & Marching Band and Wachirathamsatit Drum & Brass Corps from Bangkok, and Suranaree Witthaya Marching Band and Ratchasima Witthayalai Marching Band from Korat.

The northeastern province is home to some of the world's top-ranked marching bands. Both Suranaree and Ratchasima have won numerous international awards.

Suranaree was Thailand’s first marching band to win the top prize at the International Winds Festival in the Czech Republic. It won four awards in February 2020 — Gold with Honours, Best Test Piece, Middle Class, and Best Conductor.

The school’s all-girl band also won a gold medal at the World Music Contest in the Netherlands, the only Thai school to have achieved such success.

Meanwhile Ratchasima has won awards at the European Open Championship 2019 in Germany and World Band Challenge 2019 in Italy.

Bangkok’s Suthiwararam won at the WAMSB World Championship 2022 while Wachirathamsatit has been showered with awards at contests held in the city.

Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt proposed the battle of the bands in a recent meeting with Nakhon Ratchasima governor Wichian Chantaranothai, in a bid to stimulate the local economy. Chadchart is also behind the weekly “Music in the Park” events for bands and audiences in Bangkok’s green spaces.