This Saturday, 21 bands will converge on Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama, for the 2018 edition of the BOA Alabama Regional Championship.

This year’s prelims round will be closed out at 4:40 PM CT by Nation Ford (SC), which took home top honors at the same event in 2017 with a score of 77.650—by a comfortable margin of 2.05 over second-place Harrison (GA).

Harrison will also be back in attendance Saturday’s event, performing at 3:45 PM CT Fresh off of its fifth-place finish at BOA Clarksville, Clinton (MS) will be one of the few members of the Jacksonville competitive field with a BOA performance under its belt in 2018.

The other band in that category includes DeSoto Central, which earned a finals appearance in ninth at BOA Clarksville with a score of 71.850.

With its 34th place finish overall and a sixth-place finish in AAA, DeSoto Central is also one of the two 2017 BOA Grand National Semifinalists who will appear in Jacksonville, joined by Walton (GA), which took 28th a year ago.

While it didn’t compete at last year’s Grand Nationals, Kennesaw Mountain (GA)—performing at 4:00 PM—put up an impressive showing at last year’s Atlanta Super Regional, taking sixth place with a score of 85.450 out of 31 competing bands. 

While Nation Ford took home first in Jacksonville in both 2016 and 2017, Kennesaw Mountain was the next most recent band to win the event (2015). In 2014, Kennesaw took second behind Harrison. 

Kennesaw Mountain will be joined by a handful of other Georgia bands, including East Coweta, Wesleyan School, Allatoona, and Hillgrove. Georgia will be the most-represented state at JSU, being one-third of the event’s competitors. 

East Coweta and Hillgrove competed at last year’s Jacksonville event, taking fifth and seventh respectively. Alabama’s own Hoover was sandwiched in between them in 6th and will be returning for this year’s event. 

Despite it being held in Alabama, the Yellowhammer State will be one of the least represented Saturday’s event, as Hoover is one of three bands from Alabama making an appearance at JSU. Hoover will be joined by Leeds and Pelham, the latter of which took 13th at BOA Jacksonville in 2017 while scoring atop the AA classification.

Four bands will be making the trip from just west of the Alabama border in Mississippi, including West Harrison and Hernando, as well as the aforementioned.

Father Ryan, which has made major noise in the past on the indoor percussion scene, will be one of four Tennessee bands in attendance, alongside Seymour, Collierville, and McGavock.

Two other South Carolina bands — Boiling Springs and Laurens District 55 — will join defending regional champion Nation Ford, which has its sights set on taking home a BOA Jacksonville title for the third-straight year.