The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Marching Band Association (PIMBA) is a nonprofit organization that serves as a competitive adjudication circuit for high school marching bands in western Pennsylvania. Founded in 1996 from the PFCJ marching band circuit, the organization now includes 20 member bands who perform at both local festivals as well as the PIMBA Championships. Member bands host the adjudications throughout the fall season. Background PIMBA events provide both healthy competition and constructive feedback for performing bands. Directors pay membership dues in order for their ensemble to be classified as a member of the circuit. Classifications are broken down by the number of performing instrumentalists per ensemble. The current classifications are as follows: Class A: 1–40 instrumentalists Class AA: 41– 60 instrumentalists Class AAA: 61–85 instrumentalists Class AAAA: 86+ instrumentalists Directors may also choose to have their ensemble perform in judged exhibition or Festival Class. These bands will not be placed but will still receive judges' commentary and an individual score. From 1997 to 2012, PIMBA also featured a National Class– qualifications for this class included placing in the top five at BOA Regional competitions for two consecutive years or by special request of the director. The final competition to take place for each season is the PIMBA Championships. At the championships, bands receive final scoring in their respective classes with the top scoring band from each class being crowned a PIMBA Class Champion. The championships has historically been held at the following locations: Elizabeth Forward High School– 3 times (2003, 2005, 2007) Gateway High School– 7 times (2008, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021) Moon Area High School– 2 times (2016, 2018) North Allegheny Senior High School– 1 time (1996) Norwin High School– 4 times (2000, 2002, 2006, and 2011) Penn-Trafford High School– 6 times (1999, 2001, 2004, 2010, 2012, and 2014) South Park High School– 1 time (1998) Scoring is based upon the same system used by Bands of America, featuring a Musical Performance category (worth 20 points), a Visual Performance category (worth 20 points), and a General Effect category (worth 60 points). Unlike BOA, the raw total from these three categories is divided by two and raised by 50 to establish an ensemble's final score. PIMBA Championship Results: 1996-2022 Throughout PIMBA's history, there have been 26 Championship competitions. Several historical caveats should be noted: 1996: AAAA was referred to as Open Class 1997-2012: National Class was introduced and