Drums, please.
One of the best — and FREE — shows of the year is coming to Chicago Friday when the bands and dance teams from Central State University and Mississippi Valley State University showcase their talents from about noon to 1 p.m. in Daley Plaza.
The Battle of the Bands event is part of a series of events scheduled around the Chicago Football Classic — an annual game between two historically black colleges and universities that’s held at Soldier Field.
Mississippi Valley is bringing 386 performers to the Daley Center Friday. Central State is bringing 250.
The actual football game is Saturday at 3 p.m., and the bands and dancers will perform there, too, at halftime.
“Can you imagine the noise the excitement in Daley Plaza come Friday?” said Larry Huggins, a Chicago developer who helped found the classic, which raises money for HBCU scholarships. “The HBCU bands really put on a good show, and there will be a lot of excitement with the drum lines and majorettes.”
The classic has been on hold for a few years due to the pandemic. The last one was in 2019 between Hampton University and Howard University. Their bands and dancers rocked out under the Picasso in Daley Plaza, and among the handful of jams the bands played was “Casanova” by LeVert.
“The whole point of the weekend, which includes a college fair and other programming, is to promote HBCUs and the importance of people going to college, and to energize young men and women to seek a college education,” Huggins said. “And I like to point out: There are more band scholarships than athletic scholarships.”
