“This year is called ‘The parade of Hits,’ and it has all these different tie-ins to its theme. We’ve got this parade-feel going on. Obviously, with drummers hitting things, that’s where we can throw the hits into it,” Beats director Eric Novosad said. “On top of that, we’re playing some hit songs as well. There’s these good hit tunes that are sprinkled out throughout the entire show that makes it really interesting.”

This year’s show will take the audience through a high-energy experience with a number of group and small ensemble numbers, along with solo percussion performances.

“We have this great variety of different performances … There’s a variety that you see in a parade, and that’s exactly what this show does. Just a different variety of ensembles and groups, and kids doing all these crazy different things,” Novosad said. “Our big closer this year is My Chemical Romance’s ‘Welcome to The Black Parade,’ that’s our big show-stopping closer … I’m really pumped for the closer. We have a singer this year, and we haven’t (had) a singer in a long time.”

The Beats Program consists of 65 students from across Marshall High School, Marshall Middle School, True Light Christian School, Holy Redeemer and Lynd.

Photo by Samantha Davis: The Marshall Beats program rehearses for its annual show last April. Beats is hosting shows this weekend on Saturday and Sunday with a "Parade of Hits" theme.

Beyond the performances, audience members will also see a show full of twists along with impressive production highlights.

“We’ve got a couple really cool surprises that we’re doing this year. We’re doing a Batman theme during one of our songs, we got these costumes and we’ve got some Batman nostalgia that’s going on before the song begins. That’s going to be really cool to see,” Novosad said. “We have another group where they’re coming out in these crazy banana outfits. We heard that there was another group that’s wanting to do like those blow-up halloween dinosaurs.”

Novosad noted that rehearsals have been going very well, and the students’ excitement is growing as show weekend nears.

Particularly, Novosad and the group gathered a large supply of production lights to amp up this year’s show that also adds more to the parade theme.

“I think ultimately, this year, our light show production of our light team is really going to hit it out of the park,” Novosad said. “We added a lot of updated lasers and moving lights that are really neat to the show. Not only (is it) a musical adventure, but visually, it’s going to really get people excited because it also makes the show really cool.”

Photo by Samantha Davis: The Marshall Beats program rehearses for its annual show last April. Beats is hosting shows this weekend on Saturday and Sunday with a "Parade of Hits" theme.

Novosad said audience members can expect to witness a “high level of entertainment,” and he often recieves an inspiring amount of positive feedback after each show that credits the group’s talent and variety.

The two shows will take place on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., both at the Schwans Community Center for the Performing Arts at the Marshall High School Theater.

Admission is $15 and tickets can be purchased at the door, while children 6 years old and younger are free.

There will also be a free-will donation period during the show’s intermission, where the public can enjoy free ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. Donations given will go toward equipment upgrades for the Beats program.

“I always get to look forward to the kids and their creativity. Once we hit the stage, we really see their creativity start to really come out,” Novosad said. “The same thing that we get after every show is, ‘Wow, that was not what I was expecting, and that was entertaining for an entire two-hour production’ … Every year, I just look forward to the variety that our shows give.”