Students practiced on Saturday morning for their upcoming concerts at the 58th Red Lodge Music Festival.
It's the culmination of a week of working with teachers and musicians and playing with other music students.
For some, it brings them back to Red Lodge every year.
Hazen Ruff plays the clarinet in the junior orchestra.
She will be an 8th grader at Eileen Johnson Middle School in Lockwood.
"Say an oboe and clarinet," Ruff said. "Oboes are definitely like way louder and it's harder for them to go quieter. So we tried to like balance and blend throughout like the tone of our music."
This year the camp taught a record 250 students which is about the limit because of housing in the facilities.
Jack Staton plays trombone in the senior orchestra and he just graduated from Sky View High School.
This would have been his sixth year at the camp, but COVID canceled two years.
Staton says the lessons in Red Lodge have stayed with him throughout high school.
"Taking what we learn here in our band rehearsals and then kind of applying it to actual band." Staton said. "Just like rehearsal techniques and etiquette."
And it's special for the music teachers and the others who help the young students.
"Watching the student reward and pay off, their faces when they light up, when they succeed and when they do well, is irreplaceable," said Codie Wahrman, assistant camp director and board member.
"As a teacher, it's one of the coolest things," said John Goodheart, camp counselor and board member. "I get to bring a lot of my students up with me, getting to see them grow and taking instruction from other people and get excited about being in band."
Red Lodge residents get a chance to hear some great musicians with the faculty concerts that finish on Saturday, and student concerts that end the festival on Sunday.
The Red Lodge Music Festival is a celebration and it takes small town America to help with the housing for about 35 adult teachers and counselors.
"It's what makes it possible to have a festival because people in town house the faculty for free," said Betty Hecker, board member. "Oftentimes, there's really good connections between the musicians and the people that they stay with."
"It's really one of the best weeks of my year," Goodheart said. "I look forward to camp every year."
