From the Cleveland Daily Banner: Walker Valley High School's Mustang Band and choral department will be traveling across the pond — and they don't
From the Cleveland Daily Banner: Walker Valley High School’s Mustang Band and choral department will be traveling across the pond — and they don’t mean the Hiwassee.
On Jan. 1, 2025, WVHS students will participate in the 2025 London’s New Year’s Day Parade & Festival, which will be the school’s seventh time to march through the capital of England.
To formally invite the school and share word of the opportunity with WVHS band and choir students, Bob Bone, founder and chair of London’s New Year’s Day Parade & Festival; and Steve Summers, chair of the London Mayors’ Association, spoke at WVHS on Thursday, Sept. 21.
“You have got a heck of a job on your hands when you come to the parade because your predecessors here at Walker Valley have been six times to the parade,” Bone told students. “It really helped to make the parade the terrific event that it is today.”
Established in 1987, the parade has around 8,500 participants with approximately 670,000 attendees, Bone said.
“The No. 1 favorite, most popular thing in the parade, every single year, is you,” Bone said pointing to the students. “American high school, college and university marching bands.”
He explained how the American tradition of marching bands at sporting events is not as established in England, saying, “We have some very, very good military bands, we have some excellent community bands, brass bands and things like that, but nothing as spectacular and entertaining as you guys.”
Offering his explanation for why this may be, he joked, “We rapidly came to the conclusion that the reason is that we play pro football in England — with a round ball, that is — so you don’t need a marching band to make two and a half or three hours of game remotely interesting or entertaining.”
Speaking on the crowds of people who attend the parade each year, Bone said, “They stay … because of the quality of the entertainment, and the spectacle that they are seeing is mind boggling.”
Grinning, he added, “Why do they come out, apart from the fact the entertainment’s good? ‘Cause the weather is fantastic!”
The students laughed, thinking of England’s reputation for the cold and rain.
One student, Drew Burroughs, was selected by the students and faculty as a particularly responsible student, and he is now tasked with carrying an umbrella on him at all times between now and the parade in 15 months.
Riffing on the notion that it always rains when you forget your umbrella, Burroughs is going to do his best to keep the umbrella with him to ward off the chance of rain during the parade.
Bone said it hasn’t rained at the parade since 2017, and everyone would know who to blame if 2025 sees a torrential downpour.
Beyond the parade, Summers told students of what they can expect over the course of the time they’ll be spending in London, saying, “When you arrive in London and become Londoners for a week, the history in London is going to blow your minds.”
Noting all the “Instagrammable” architecture, museums and art galleries and even the shopping opportunities, he said it will be “life changing.”
“There’s going to be a lot of time, there’s going to be a lot of commitment, there’s going to be a lot of sacrifices, and there’ll be a lot of fundraising,” Summers cautioned before adding, “If you come to London and perform in this event, I promise you, it will change your life forever.”
After Tanner Hunt, WVHS band director; and Tristen Rowland, WVHS choir teacher formally accepted the invitation to participate in the parade, the choral department sang WVHS’ alma mater and then proceeded to sing a rendition of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.”
Footage of the marching band’s Sept. 8 performance was then played for Bone and Summers before Hunt closed out the ceremony, noting, “It’s going to be an awesome treat to go on this trip.”
In a statement to the Cleveland Daily Banner, WVHS Principal Candice Belt said, “We’re just really excited to get back to this tradition. It’s been a few years since we’ve been able to go, so we are honored and humbled to be able to represent our community in London in 2025.”
