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Chapter three
Six bands played the first Championships in Raleigh, in two competitive sections and an exhibition slot. The contest has been reshaped many times since: Honors, Challenge and Explorer gave way to First, Second and Third in 2010, the youth bands got sections of their own, and a Fourth Section arrives in 2027. This is the shape of it, year by year.
Each bar is one Championships; the colours are the section families. No contest was held in 2020 and 2021.
A bar runs from a section's first contest to its last. Hover for its busiest year.
1983–1986. Championship and Second in year one, a non-competitive slot for the band that just wanted to play. Honors replaced Second in 1984; Challenge arrived in 1986 as the third tier.
1987–2009. A Youth Section from 1987, an Open Section from 1990 for bands outside the graded ladder, and an Explorer Section for new bands from 2002. The grades kept their names, Honors and Challenge, for a quarter of a century.
2010. The ladder was renamed First, Second and Third, matching the British grades that bands and adjudicators already spoke in, and Explorer was retired.
2015 onward. Youth Championship (2015) and Youth First (2019) gave the youth bands a graded ladder of their own alongside Youth Open. A Fourth Section opens in 2027.
The set work for the top section, 1983 to 2007, from Diana Herak's history.
Test pieces for the other sections and for 2008 onward are being added from the printed programmes. If you kept yours, history@nabba.org would like to hear from you.
What every section will play next.