The Fort Myers Excessive College Band will herald the brand new yr with music, however the native bandmembers might be celebrating, once more, removed from residence.
Members of The Greenwave Marching Band, colorguard, and dance workforce will carry out within the 2023 London New Years Day Parade on Sunday, Jan. 1, at midday, London time, which interprets into 7 a.m. Fort Myers time.
The parade might be streamed dwell from 7 to 10:30 a.m. Jan. 1 on WGCU HD. Viewers can catch the WGCU TV stream dwell on wgcu.org or on the WGCU app, obtainable by way of an app retailer.
London New Yr’s Eve Parade
/
Particular to WGCU
Parade organizers stated the 2023 occasion might be “again in its authentic format, greater and higher than ever earlier than” when it takes over Piccadilly and traverses Regents Avenue St James’s, Pall Mall, Trafalgar Sq. and Whitehall.
Parade organizers stated there are greater than 10,000 performers collaborating within the parade, with many various nations represented.
The occasion attracts round 1 million spectators dwell, often covers a 2-mile parade route proper by way of the guts of London and lasts for a number of hours.
This would be the Greenwave’s third look on the occasion. Beforehand, the band “invaded” London on New Yr’s Day 2007 and 2017.
The Greenwave band will not be the one South Florida group going. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College Eagle Regiment from Parkland, Florida, may also take part.
For a number of the 85 members of the Greenwave band, dance workforce and colorguard in addition to greater than two dozen mother and father and siblings who’re going, the journey will embrace some firsts.
John Shannon, a kind of mother and father and treasurer of the band boosters, stated his son, John, who performs the sousaphone within the band, has been overseas earlier than, and his daughter, who graduated in 2021, was born abroad.
“So from that standpoint, not new to this, however there are lots of children who’ve by no means been on an airplane earlier than,” he stated. “To be sincere with you, all people’s excited,” he stated.
Fundraising for the journey was essential for its success, he stated, however couldn’t cowl everybody.
“Sadly we couldn’t take all people — the funding necessities have been fairly intense,” Shannon defined.
London New Yr’s Eve Parade
/
Particular to WGCU
That funding meant elevating near $3,300 per band member.
That 2007 journey price greater than $273,000; this time, inflation and all, the journey might be $400,000.
“Once you take a look at what you bought airfare, lodges? Two meals a day,” Shannon stated.
He stated there have been alternatives to lift cash for the journey as effectively.
“We supplied the youngsters lots of fundraising alternatives and there are a few two- and three-person households that earned their entire manner over by doing fundraising alternatives,” Shannon stated.
A few of these different “new” issues embrace one thing so simple as a door lock.
“My spouse needed to discover out what sort of inside locks the resort makes use of to verify the youngsters know how you can lock,” he stated. His spouse is the president of the vocal arts boosters and ran throughout an analogous difficulty just lately.
London New Yr’s Eve Parade
/
Particular to WGCU
“She simply took a bunch of children to Orlando and it turned out, for a lot of of them, they’d by no means been in a resort earlier than and by no means knew how you can lock the door,” Shannon stated.
And, simply as in earlier visits, the band might be in-country for per week and see a number of the sights of London.
“Eight days they fly over. We’re going over early as a household … they go over the twenty seventh and are available again on the third,” he stated. “This can be a large expertise for the youngsters. It is a as soon as in a lifetime, , not less than their lifetime thus far, expertise, and , frankly, we’re usually excited.”
The Shannons and most of the others who’re going, comparable to Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson and his spouse, will watch the Greenwave’s parade efficiency from grandstand bleachers close to the top of the parade route. Just a few different mother and father will march with the band as “just a little grownup supervision,” Shannon stated.
The band’s go to in 2007 got here with a spot of controversy when security and terrorism considerations by then College Superintendent James Browder threatened to derail the journey.
Cooler parental heads prevailed after faculty board officers overruled Browder and left the journey as much as mother and father. They parental vote was 101 to three for the band to go.
A narrative in The Fort Myers Information-Press in June 2006 quoted one younger bandmember’s ideas about that security difficulty.
“I am not frightened about that in any respect,” stated flutist Emily Stone, who was going to be a freshman. “I do know we’ll be protected, so I actually don’t be concerned about that form of stuff.”
The then incoming bandmember additionally had an ulterior motive to be longing for the journey: “Double-decker buses,” she stated. “I’ve by no means seen one, besides in motion pictures. I wish to journey on high.”
WGCU is your trusted supply for information and knowledge in Southwest Florida. We’re a nonprofit public service, and your assist is extra essential than ever. Maintain public media sturdy and donate now. Thanks.
