ELKINS — A community celebration that has been a local tradition for decades will return Saturday when the Elkins High School Band offers its annual Corn Roast at Elkins City Park.

The event will feature both the EHS and the Elkins Middle School marching bands. The annual event is one of the biggest fundraisers of the year for the band program.

“Because this event is held right at the beginning of the school year, it’s a great way to get some fundraising efforts kick-started,” EHS band director Seth Blake told The Inter-Mountain. “Bigger than fundraising, though, is the fact that the band gets to go out and play for the community. Making music for the town is just as big as any money we can bring in.”

The Corn Roast will run from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday. The EHS band will begin marching from an area next to First Street at approximately 12:30 p.m. From there the band will make its way up Davis Avenue before turning next to Huntington Bank and crossing over onto Park Street. The band will then enter the City Park, where they will perform for those attending the event.

“A ton of directors before me have done the Corn Roast and a ton after me will do it,” Blake said. “It’s been going on for decades and I know Jason Baker was there in the 1990s and it was happening when he started… The community always supports us and even if folks don’t buy a dinner, many of them come to enjoy the music, which is awesome.”

Blake said the band has been working hard since June just to get music ready for Saturday’s event. They will be performing next to the large pavilion in the City Park.

“The middle school will play three or four songs, while the high school band will play seven or eight,” Blake said. “The cool thing is that our field show this year was custom-written for us. So some of the music we will be performing Saturday has never been performed – this is the debut, the premier of the music. No other band has ever played the songs, the arrangements that we are playing. It’s popular music, so people will recognize it, but it’s brand new arrangements written just for the band.”

Roasted corn on the cob and pork barbecue sandwiches will be available for purchase during the event.

“The corn is delicious and the sandwiches are amazing as well,” said Blake. “They have a tub full of butter that they dip the corn in that makes it incredible. The hospital does the pork barbecue for us and they make some really good sandwiches.”