From the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection (and nonbinary nonsense, obviously), we want to wish everyone a Happy New Years!

Yet again, I (Ryan) have failed to remember to collaborate with our Creative Club to make sure these updates look nice and pretty, but this time a year wreaks havoc on ability to meet up!

In just 5 months, we will be welcoming you all to help us make Band Things Happen in Philadelphia! There’s been a lot going on as we get ready to welcome you. 

Key Important Details

First off, all information you need should be available on our website: 2026.pridebands.org . If there’s something you want to see and don’t, please reach out to us at [email protected].

Registration: Make sure you are registered through eventbrite . If you’re getting this email directly, then we show you as registered. For liability reasons, all participants MUST be registered. If you need scholarship assistance, please reach out to [email protected] for more information.

Lodging: we STRONGLY recommend staying at our host hotel, Double Tree by Hilton Center City (room block link). Philadelphia, especially Center City, is VERY expensive. Weekend rates at this hotel are regularly close to $400 a night, while our rate is $209. There are lot of hotels in the area, but even chains that are typically budget properties are expensive. All of our events will be within a five minute walk of the host hotel. Additionally, with the conference happening over Memorial Day Weekend, AND the city gearing up to host major events all year for the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (signed 9 blocks east of the host hotel), we expect even the usual discount options to be priced at a premium.

Shirts: While we will order a small number of extra shirts that can be purchased towards the end of the conference, we will not have a huge quantity of extras. If you want to ensure you get a shirt, make sure you purchase one on our registration page. If you have already registered and want to add a shirt, simply go through the registration process again, ONLY selecting a shirt. If you need to change the size of the shirt you selected, I believe you can change that by going into your registration details (or email [email protected]). Before we order name badges and shirts, we will be reaching out to confirm that the information we have is correct. This shirt will also be the marching/pep uniform shirt. If you are participating in the marching/pep event, make sure you purchase a shirt!

The Four Ensembles

There will be a total of four ensembles (plus small ensembles). All four will have a unique name fitting with Philadelphia’s spirit and the themes of the conference. The band names and music selections for the bands will be released in an email later this month.

There will be two concert bands. Each will consist of up to 150 participants (plus percussion). Both concert ensembles will play a commissioned piece. Both of these bands will be led by Philadelphia Freedom Band Artistic Director Hayley Varhol. Guest conductors are listed on our website along with a brief biography of each. The concert performance will be the final performance of the conference. We will be performing at Marian Anderson Hall inside the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts. This 2,500 seat venue is home to the Philadelphia Orchestra.

There will be jazz/swing band. This auditioned-based group will perform at a social event at the host hotel. Philadelphia Freedom Band Jazz Ensemble Director Esau Jones will lead this group.

Finally, there will be a marching/pep band. We are partnering with Disability Pride of Pennsylvania, a group that has been a very close partner with Philadelphia Freedom Band over the years. The parade portion is approximately 4 or 5 short city blocks on flat terrain, culminating with a stand and play at Disability Pride PA’s street festival. Philadelphia Freedom Band’s Drum Major, Robin Coyle, will lead this ensemble. There are no caps and no limitations to participating in this event. Uniform will be the conference t-shirt, so it is strongly encouraged for all participating to purchase a shirt through the registration site. Music for the pep band will be mostly artists from in and around Philadelphia. The full set list will be announced later this month, with music distributed in early April. Our color guard team is hard at work getting routines ready and will be distributing videos of the routines to those who have signed up for color guard.

We are also very excited to announce the lineup of our drum majors. In addition to Robin, we are excited to announce the following: Chris Houston (Philadelphia), Kenney Green (QBAC), Alynn Rouselle (Queen City), Melissa Terrell (Lakeside), Charles Roth (QBAC), Erin Frawley (Boston), Brandon Gray (Atlanta), and Colin Savoy (Gayly Forward) have all confirmed. We are in the process of getting headshots and biographies uploaded to the conference website.

Registration Stats

For the statistic nerds out there, we currently have 255 people registered (including guests). 220 people have registered for concert band, 132 people have registered for marching/pep band (12 people in color guard), and 34 people have signed up for the jazz/swing band. All full members of Pride Bands Alliance have at least one member registered with the exception of Central Florida Sounds of Freedom Band and Guard (Orlando), and Rainbow Concert Band (Vancouver). That said, we have not had anyone register from any of the three new Bands in Formation (Nashville Harmony Pride Band, Fort Wayne Pride Bands, or Iowa Pride Bands)

Triangle Pride Band has the most registrants outside the host band at a whopping 28! DC’s Different Drummers (18), Atlanta (16), South Florida (14), and a three-way tie of Queer Big Apple Corp, San Francisco, and Rainbow City (Seattle) (12 each) round out the five member bands with the most participants!

Once again, we look forward to hosting you in May!! If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected]!!

Yours in Pride,
Ryan Fitzpatrick
he/him/his
Conference Chair, Band Things Happen in Philadelphia 2026
Equipment Manager, Philadelphia Freedom Band.
[email protected]

I hope every has had as good of a Thanksgiving/Friendsgiving that they could possibly have. I know I’m very thankful for my Philadelphia Freedom Band family, as well as my extended Pride Bands family, which includes every single one of you. I’m currently traveling for Thanksgiving, and am not familiar with Salesforce yet, so please bear with me if this email lacks the polish it would have if I was able to run everything by our Creative Club!

It’s already a been a month since Something Wicked happened in Fort Lauderdale, which means it’s time for Philly to kick into high gear!! The 2026 Pride Bands Alliance National Conference: Band Things Happen in Philadelphia is less than six months away!

Registration is booming – BUT early registration is almost over. The last chance to register for the conference at the early-bird rate is Sunday November 30! Starting December 1, the registration fee goes up to $120. Sure, it’s “only” an extra $20, but that’d get you a hoagie and either a citywide or a water-ice [pronounced wooderice] (maybe both depending on the shop), so that’s not nothing!

Note: Pride Bands Alliance directly handles scholarships. Scholarships are now open! Please submit your completed online application, and forward one letter of recommendation from a member of your band’s leadership team or board of directors to [email protected] by Dec 20, 2025, at 11:59pm.

We will have three main methods of distributing information as we prepare for the conference. The first and primary one is this email group. These emails will also be available on the conference website, 2026.pridebands.org, for full visibility. The second is a private Facebook group, located here. This is the same as the last few conferences. We will also be rolling out a Discord group in the near future. Pride Bands Alliance has made the decision to move away from Facebook. We will keep both the Facebook group and the discord group up-to-date.

Below are the front and back of the cards distributed in Fort Lauderdale to encourage people to register. I also have PDF variants. These are both available on the Facebook group, or email [email protected] and we will get the files to you as quickly as possible.

Since this is the first email, let’s just lay out the basics. Band Things Happen in Philadelphia will take place May 21-May 25, 2026, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. All of our events are ventrally located in the Center City area, with the host hotel – Doubletree by Hilton Center City Philadelphia, located about 4 blocks due south of City Hall at the intersection of Broad and Locust Streets. All rehearsals, most socials, and the Jazz/Big Band performance will be at the host hotel. Our pep/marching event is planned to start on the north side of City Hall, and meander at a casual stroll for about 4-6 blocks before ending at a street festival for Disability Pride of Pennsylvania. The conference will culminate with two concert bands performing in the gorgeous Marian Anderson Hall, located inside the Kimmel Center. This 2,500 seat venue is the same one the Philadelphia Orchestra performs in.

Music

First and foremost, we come together to make music. And the 2026 conference will be no different. Music for Jazz and Concert Bands have not been finalized, but each concert band will play one commissioned piece. Melissa Dunphy has composed a piece for the Museum of the American Revolution about an illicit romance involving Baron Wilhelm Von Steuben, a historical figure from the Revolutionary War titled “Forbidden”. Michael J Evans has composed a piece tentatively titled “Power and Pride”, which was commissioned by Philadelphia Freedom Band for the 2026 Conference.

Most, if not all, songs have been finalized for Marching/Pep band . Songs will mostly involve artists from the area or with strong ties to the area. Sabrina Carpenter and Pink are from Montgomery County. Taylor Swift is from Berks County (Reading, PA). Philadelphia Freedom Band regularly participates in Asbury Park Pride in New Jersey, which is also where Bruce Springsteen made a name for himself. Boyz II Men and Sister Sledge are both from Philadelphia, and the most famous theme song from the long-running Soul Train is literally called TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia). Elton John wrote a song all about Philadelphia Freedom, and what is more iconically Philly than the anthem played while some boxer guy ran up a bunch of stairs (and yes, you will be able to see them from where we will be playing these songs).

I hope to have the songs for the other ensembles finalized soon. Our color guard already has all the songs and is hard at work getting routines together. Once they are set, we will begin to send video of the routines to everyone who has registered for color guard.

Registration

Last thing to bring up in this email is a quick note of where we are on registration. As of 8:00pm on 11/28/25, a total of 192 people are registered for the 2026 Conference. 166 plan to participate in concert band, and 102 for marching band. Note: each concert band will be capped at 150 plus percussion. Marching band will have no cap. Since Jazz Band is not inherently open to all, we will be working on the backend to finalize that arrangement.

We will be sending more information in the near future. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to [email protected] . I am just one person, but multiple people have eyes on that account.

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you very soon!!

Ryan Fitzpatrick
He/Him/His
2026 Band Things Happen Conference Chair
Philadelphia Freedom Band