Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.The All-City Music Festival has been a tradition for the Omaha Public Schools since 1937.
But the event won't be held in 2012.
A snowstorm postponed the Feb. 4 event, which features nearly 2,000 of the city's best musicians in the sixth grade through high school.
School officials had initially hoped to reschedule, but conflicts related to state testing led to the festival's cancellation this year, said Luanne Nelson, OPS spokeswoman.
District officials couldn't settle on another date that gave students the necessary practice time during the week before the Saturday festival, Nelson said.
"Second semester, it's testing time," she said. "We need to focus on classroom engagement and testing for many of these students."
Students audition for the annual event in the fall and begin practicing together in January.
Rescheduling the event would have meant taking kids out of their classes during testing season to practice the music together.
Nebraska public schools students in grades four, eight and 11 take the writing test in late January or early February.
From March 26 to May 4, students in grades three through eight and 11 will take the math and reading tests. Students in grades five, eight and 11 also take the new state science test during the same six-week period.
This is not the first time in recent years that weather has led to the event being postponed and later canceled.
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