Well, as some of you might know, I had the oppurtunity to participate in the Tournament of Roses Parade on Monday, January 2nd.
I was with the Allen Eagle Escadrille (the big band from Texas with 640 members) and this was our first year to participate in the parade, and it was also our first year to send in a tape (try out).
I am with the Drumline/Pit and as many of you know, it rained during the whole parade, but it was an incredible experience.
See, all of us had to wake up at 3:00 am to get ready for this parade. We put on our uniforms and drove on out to Pasedena. It took us around 20 full charter busses to get out there. Once we were there, of course I had to help unload the drumline stuff (duh) and get set up within 7 minutes. Once we were all set and the lines were formed we started off in the parade. At this point it was just lightly showering, no big deal. As we rounded the first corner playing Grandioso, all we heard was cheering and screaming. Once we were about a mile or so into the parade, we hit the heavy winds, and rain. At this point, most of us were continuously chanting to ourselves to stay in there. I know, 5.7 miles isn't very long, but try marching it in the rain, and it seems like miles. Once we were 2 miles in, we were completely soaked. Some of you saw the other bands with ponchos on, and we were one of the only bands in just uniforms. We almost had someone get hypothermia during this too. Once we were about 4.5 miles in, the directors continuously told everyone "Hang in there, it's just a little bit farther." and finally, we got to mile 5. As soon as we hit this mile marker, the cheer that came from the crowd was breathtaking. Once we had finished the parade, another band was finishing the parad e with the song "Hey Baby," and if you happened to be standing there on that final turn, you would have heard just about our whole band singing along.
After everything was done and we were back in the hotel ball room, still soaked, our band directer told us the "statistics" as some might call them. Out of 640 members in the Allen Eagle Escadrille, only 6 people dropped out, that is less than 1% of the Escadrille. Some other bands had consist of 200 people and around 25 of them had dropped out, which is 12.5% of them. We had also been offered for some of us to go onto the Ellen Degeneres show, but the time frame wouldn't work out.
If you recorded the parade, check us out again, and incase you didn't know, we are the largest band in the United States, and possibly even the world.
