Husky Athletic Bands Director Brad McDavid led thousands of drummers in nine different cities via a live webcam during the sixth annual Woodstick Big Beat charity event yesterday afternoon.

The first Woodstick in 2003 was the brainchild of Chris Kimball of Tacoma. Sponsored by the Tacoma Rotary Club, it set what was then the Guinness world record of 264 drummers playing together.

“This year, I began to take on more of a consulting role, and have basically turned this thing over to a man we all know and love,” Kimball said. “That man is Donn Bennett.”

Kimball and Bennett of Donn Bennett Drum Studio first joined forces after the first Woodstick event back in 2003. Bennett’s large Bellevue drum shop and his connections to the Northwest drum community meshed well with Kimball’s access to the large network of Rotary clubs in the area, and the event has grown in recognition ever since. With the sixth annual Woodstick, Bennett took the event beyond its local roots to locations across North America.

“Not only has he contacted all the drum companies and all the celebrity artists and arranged all the rest, but he has coordinated, for the first time ever, eight other cities in the U.S. and Canada,” Kimball said.

The plan was to have eight Woodstick events, all coordinated via webcam with the primary event held at Juanita High School.

In order to keep all the drummers at all the events playing in time with each other, Bennett arranged for McDavid to conduct the musicians from a stage up front.

“Donn Bennett and I have worked together on various other projects,” McDavid said. ”So, he asked me if I wanted to get involved with Woodstick, and I told him I absolutely would.”

McDavid wasn’t just conducting the participants on the ground and at all the other Woodstick events. In addition to the registered participants, there was a cadre of celebrity drummers, including Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, Joe Plummer of Modest Mouse, BB King’s drummer Tony Coleman, and the original drummer for Heart, Michael Derosier.

“Oh, I was having a ball,” said Steve Ferrone, drummer for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. “I was really excited to see that many drummers who were all playing at the same time. It was just fun.”

Both the celebrity musicians and the rank-and-file drummers let their excited energy be known throughout the event, with sporadic outbreaks of extended drum solos and beats.

What was most striking for some was the wide range of people participating in the event, with young and old in attendance.

“What’s so neat about it is that you had kids down there that looked like they had only picked up the drum sticks a couple of years ago to guys that looked like they had been playing a long time,” McDavid said. “It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves no matter what their age or ability level was.”

Reach reporter Anthony Michael Erickson at news@dailyuw.com.