Three days of marching action will be held at ILT Stadium Southland, ending on Saturday.
Marching Southland will host the championships, starting off with an opening ceremony at 3pm.
Marching Southland promotions and publicity officer Sheree Hall said there was pressure to make sure everything ran smoothly, but she was not worried because of her solid support team.
"People will be coming from Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Otago, Canterbury, Wellington, Taranaki and of course Southland.
"We have eight Southland teams competing, including our Hokonui U13 and Hokonui U18 who were first place winners in the South Island competition last year."
Ms Hall hoped they would retain their titles on their home turf.
Marching teams from throughout the country will compete for a place in the finals, starting with the qualifying march tomorrow from 9am.
U13 and U18 grades will battle it out in the plate march from 9am on Saturday.
Performances from the Invercargill Rock’n’Roll Club and the ILT City of Invercargill Highland Pipe Band will entertain the audience during the lunch break.
The championship march finals will begin at 1pm and end with the senior grade division.
"We can look forward to a thrilling and nail-biting awards ceremony.
"All will be revealed as to which Marching New Zealand Championships team will get their coveted marching awards."
The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday at 6.40pm.
