A music performance at a Halloween event turned into an award-winning night for the house band in Cedar Rapids/Marion. The parade and festivities in the Czech Village and New Bohemia neighborhoods (AKA New Bo) drew in a crowd.

Before the November chills arrived, the eastern Iowa community celebrated fall in late October with the NewBo Market and Czech Village. It was a jam-packed festival with food, vendors, a parade, a movie night, and a costume contest.

The house band performed a set during the parade that rolled across town. The fun part of this particular event? Floats can win awards for most scary, creative, or creative walking units. Our float won, but not under the categories listed. We won the most ENORMOUS float. The story behind that is that we have a house band parent who has a friend with a semi, so we were able to transform a flatbed trailer into a gigantic rock stage.  A big SOR shout-out to Andy Mackey for hooking us up with the massive semi trailer, and to Jon Brown for being willing to bring his semi to town for the parade!!

The days before winter are the busiest as people soak up the warm air. That particular night was a busy one for the SOR family. The performance groups also enjoyed a bonfire party until midnight, while playing games, making smores, and sharing good tunes with their music family.