The crowd was not scared away Saturday night when a dark, ominous cloud threatened to douse the festivities at the final performance of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, “Picnic with the Pops: A Scarlet and Gray Finale,” featuring Ohio State’s Marching Band. The concert took place on the north lawn of Chemical Abstracts Service on Olentangy River Road. The area was transformed into a mid-summer’s evening gala event complete with huge elms decorated with white lights.The start of the concert was slightly delayed when a large, black thundercloud rolled in from the northwest and loomed over a crowd eager to hear their favorite football rally songs played by the OSU Marching Band.But the fans of “The Best Damn Band In The Land,” as the OSU Marching Band is fondly known, were not easily scared away. Many people didn’t even consider leaving when the weather started to turn ugly, and most felt relief from the stifling heat as the tempest wind delivered a cool breeze. “The breeze feels so good,” said Donna Bazzoli, an OSU grad student who was recently accepted into the OSU Medical School. “It’ll blow over, just wait a few minutes.”Five minutes later, the cloud had passed without spilling a drop on spectators, and the marching band made a grand entrance led by Director Dr. Jon Woods. Dressed in scarlet and gray from head to toe, with scarlet plumes standing atop their tall hats, the band marched to the stage as they pounded out the famous OSU fight song, “Fight The Team.”On stage, the band jumped into some of the more famous rally tunes like “Hang On Sloopy” and “Buckeye Battle Cry.”Afterward Woods handed the baton to Albert-George Schram, resident conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, who led the band in Copland’s Old American Songs, “I Bought Me A Cat” and “Shall We Gather By the River” sung by Eric McKeever, a guest singer and OSU alumni who graduated from the School of Music with a master’s in vocal performance.Schram and the band finished off the hour-long show with Rossini and D’Angelo’s “Overture To William Tell,” and Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”The evening was topped off by family and friends who lingered as long as an hour after the performance to finish off their wine and cheese.