Early this morning Student Council canceled the Battle of the Bands competition previously scheduled for Thursday evening, according to senior Student Council president Sophie Yarosh.

“It’s supposed to snow a lot tonight, and there’s also a huge section hockey game tonight that a lot of the school will be attending, and it’s at the same time,” Yarosh said. “It’s a lot of work to set up Battle of the Bands if not a lot of people are going to participate.”

Sophomore Ben Berg said he plays lead guitar in the band 9Volt along with other Park students and was scheduled to play at the Battle of the Bands. Berg said Student Council made the right decision to cancel the competition.

“The idea of playing the show wasn’t a big deal for us one way or the other,” Berg said. “It would kind of suck for everyone if we got there and there were only six total songs.”

Student Council adviser Sarah Lindenberg said the small number of acts performing, the snowy weather and hockey game all contributed to Student Council’s decision to scrap the activity.

“Part of the discussion was around that maybe turnout for Battle of the Bands would be lower because of the Sections game for hockey too, so that was something that came up too, but more so we were concerned about the weather and only having the two acts that were signed up for it,” Lindenberg said.

Berg said he sees fewer bands’ songs in today’s top 40 music, and so less interest in a Battle of the Bands competition is to be expected.

“I think that bands are much less common now than they were 15 or 20 years ago,” Berg said. “I think the idea of a school led music show needs to be updated to reflect that.

According to Lindenberg, Student Council hopes to hold a similar event later in the year, with more time for students to prepare and to gather greater interest.

“In discussing with some of the Student Council members, (Scott) Meyers and just myself, we thought there were only a couple of bands, one band and one singer, that were signed up for it, and with the weather the way it was too, we thought cancel it and maybe try and make something in the spring that would give people a little bit more notice to put together a band so we can maybe get a little bit bigger turnout for it,” Lindenberg said.