By Allison Scarbrough, News Editor
ROTHBURY — The 50-piece Shelby Alumni Marching Band and Color Guard will perform at the Electric Forest Festival Saturday, June 27, from approximately 3-4:30 p.m.
“It’s mostly people who have graduated from Shelby,” said Shelby Band Director Erin Ray-Peterson. “There are sometimes a couple performers who are not alumni, because there are some of my college friends who like to play. If there is a student, they just need parent permission. But it’s mostly alumni.”
The musicians will march to Sherwood Trail and stage at the Wally Wojack Spur. Then the band will march to the Dream Field or the back of Sherwood Court, said Ray-Peterson.
“This year, we are potentially going to collab with the Detroit Party Marching Band. We’re going to play a piece, and they will play a piece back to us. We’ll do that for two songs. Then, we’re all going to join in together and play a piece together.
“We’re going to play one of our marching band pieces for next year, ‘Counting Stars.’ And then we’re going to play, ‘I Just Want to Celebrate.’”
The Tiger band has performed at nearly every Electric Forest event since it began 15 years ago, said Ray. She performed with the band at EF when she was a Shelby High School student. Now retired Tiger director Curt Isakson previously led the band at the forest.
The band’s annual appearance at the festival is through the Electric Forest’s Music in Schools program, which provides funding to local schools’ music programs for the purchase of instruments and equipment.
“Since I’ve been here the last three years — the Oceana Community Foundation provides the grants and scholarships — we’ve raised $8,000-$10,000. We have slowly been replacing our drum line. Three years ago, we got a new set of bass drums. They are tonal, so each one has a different pitch to go with it. We have a quad tom and a couple pairs of cymbals. This year, my goal is to replace our snare drums for the marching season for our high school students. We are grateful for any of the grants we have received for our drum line equipment. Our students have been taking very good care of the equipment, and they are just very appreciative.”
In addition to the financial benefits, the EF performances create a renewed interest, camaraderie and joy the alumni experience by performing music once again. “There are a lot of alumni in our group who maybe don’t get to play their instrument a lot outside of this performance. Some of them are in community bands or the Scottville Clown Band, but they enjoy coming back for rehearsals and just rehearsing music at the school, having a good time. 
We give them pizza at our rehearsal dinners. They’re coming back and enjoying band again for a couple days. Some of them don’t even want a ticket (to the festival). They just like to play with the alumni band, and that makes me happy.”
The Electric Forest Festival is set for June 25–28 at the Double JJ Resort in Rothbury. The massive musical festival attracts tens of thousands of festival goers from across the country and beyond.
Contributed photos/The Shelby Alumni Marching Band and Color Guard performs during the 2025 Electric Forest Festival.
________________________
Please Support Local News and Sports Coverage
Receive daily MCP and OCP news briefings along with email news alerts for $10 a month. Your contribution will help us to continue to provide you with free local news.
The payment can be paid monthly through PayPal: Click this link.
To sign up for an annual subscription, email editor@mediagroup31.com. In the subject line write: Subscription. Please supply your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number (indicate cell phone). We will not share your information with any outside sources.
For more than one email address in a household, the cost is $15 per month per email address.
We can send you an invoice for a yearly payment of $120, which you can conveniently pay online or by check. If you are interested in this method, please email editor@mediagroup31.com and we can sign you up. You can also mail a yearly check for $120 to Media Group 31, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454 (please include your email address).
Payment must be made in advance prior to subscription activation.
We appreciate all our readers regardless of whether they choose to continue to access our service for free or with a monthly financial support.
_____
This story and original photography are copyrighted © 2026, all rights reserved by Media Group 31, LLC, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454. No portion of this story or images may be reproduced in any way, including print or broadcast, without expressed written consent.
As the services of Media Group 31, LLC are news services, the information posted within the sites are archivable for public record and historical posterity. For this reason it is the policy and practice of this company to not delete postings. It is the editor’s discretion to update or edit a story when/if new information becomes available. This may be done by editing the posted story or posting a new “follow-up” story. Media Group 31, LLC or any of its agents have the right to make any changes to this policy. Refer to Use Policy for more information.
.png)