The Florida Marching Band Championships was established in 1997 as the Florida Marching Band Coalition, the vision of founder Jon Kersten and his family. The organization was created to provide a first-class, consistent, and engaging competitive experience for Florida’s high school marching bands. We seek to inspire all those within the activity to recognize, appreciate, and grow from their experiences as they interact with some of the finest and most progressive marching bands in the country. The FMBC provides a consistent and educationally-based evaluation system that rewards growth and excellence in technical and expressive achievement through the use of a standardized set of evaluation criteria.

Jon Kersten, his wife Cathy, and their children Jennifer, Sandie, Stephanie, and Bill have been involved in a myriad of marching and pageantry arts activities throughout the state and nation. They have worked tirelessly since the first FMBC Championships event in 1998 to develop and grow the organization into a contemporary marching arts experience. Sadly, we lost Jon in 2010, but his legacy lives on through the thousands of performers, educators, adjudicators, directors, staff members, and spectators who enjoy the Florida Marching Band Championships each fall, and continually push the standards of the FMBC to new horizons.