This Thanksgiving Break, the Edina Marching Band took a long-awaited trip to Boston and Plymouth, Mass., as well as New York City. Typically, every two years, the Marching Band wraps up their season with an out-of-state trip where they showcase their hard work and musical talents at a big performance venue. However, the last trip was canceled due to COVID-19. This left students in heavy anticipation months ahead of their vacation with their friends and peers.
The students and staff attending the trip visited significant monuments in each city they visited, including the Freedom Trail, Plymouth Rock, and the Boston Harborwalk. The trip was an educational experience, but also got to be an escape for students from their everyday busy lives. “[I was] excited about meeting new bandies because there will be other bands there and it’s super fun to meet people who have similar interests as you but live in a different part of the country,” senior Katherine Doom said. Students got to look forward to broadening their horizons and building relationships with many different types of people from all around the country.
While in Plymouth, Mass., the birthplace of Thanksgiving, the band performed at America’s Hometown Thanksgiving Day Parade. The parade has multiple historical floats, depicting important aspects of colonial American history. It also included many different bands from schools across the world; however, Edina Marching Band was the only one from the Midwest. The Edina Marching Band was specially invited to perform in the Reviewing section of the parade, which was aired in 26 states and live-streamed for anybody who wanted to see. They also got the opportunity to perform an evening performance at Plymouth Memorial Hall, a huge honor for only select bands.
Marching band students at Edina High School were very excited about this trip and got to experience all the possible outings it has to offer. The marching band staff was also thrilled to be able to give their students an amazing experience they’ll always remember. “It’s exciting to see the stronger friendships and relationships that come out of a trip like this. There’s just a tighter community of students that comes out of a trip usually,” director of the Edina Marching band Andrew Richter said. “When we leave Edina, we become ambassadors of Edina. So we have to kind of have the mindset that we’re representing our school, our city and our state, and try to be good representatives.”
Students were on a tight schedule, and visited specific sights as a group. However, students did get to branch off and explore the cities on their own as well. The students got to see sights such as Times Square, The Museum of Fine Arts, a Broadway show, and got to try all of the different foods native to the cities they were visiting. “I really [wanted] to try a Boston lobster roll,” senior Kaitlyn Hou said. “It’s exciting because [I got] to see all the things that I was too young to remember when I went to Boston last time. Or just wasn’t interested in.”
The Edina Marching Band definitely had a fun-filled trip this Thanksgiving break. “It definitely [was] very hectic, but [I knew] it’s was going to be a lot of fun,” Hou said.
This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on November 30, 2023.
