Rose Parade Experience

[Samuel Culper]

I am a Vista Ridge supporter and thrilled by the Rose Parade invite. I know some of you have made this trip.... Can you please share what all is involved in the experience? Both for the band and for the families/fans.

Thank you!

[bandguy123]

I can tell you the stuff we did from the band side. So there’s the marching showcase one of the days which is a few minutes from your show. There is also picture day which is a band picture and then you get to tour the floats being made. Parade day is early and then you march the 5 mile long parade and then eat after. My band went to universal and Disney some of the days. We also spent New Years on the queen Mary which was cool! I know every band probably has a different experience but the parade is a great experience! You can also trade your bands pin you can purchase with the other bands that are also in the parade!

[ooshkaboosh]

The Rose Parade is something I will never forget. I cant really say much about parents/family experience, just that most parents in my band went and accompanied us to some events, but also got to explore other parts of LA if they wanted. My family went to the Warner Brothers studio tour, for example, while we were in Hollywood. We attended Disneyland and Universal as well, which was awesome. I will agree and say that every band has a different experience, particularly in other activities besides the main event, but as for the parade itself: We performed at BandFest, where every band in the parade performs their field show for the year as a way of introductions to each band. There were many types of bands there and in the parade - not just your typical high school marching band - including an all-female band from Sweden, Japanese marching bands… the list goes on!! It was a great way to meet other types of musicians you may not meet at a BOA competition, where most are very similar musicians to you. The parade itself is about 5 miles and extremely tiring for some, but worth it for the In N Out at the end Making the televised turn onto Colorado felt like nothing I had experienced before! All the cameras, people cheering… knowing millions are watching on television at home… words can’t describe. Vista Ridge should be incredibly excited and honored to be apart of the experience. I am so excited for them!!!

[trumpette123]

Dying during the parade. A marching band show does not prepare you for this parade. Idk about Texas bands, but parade marching is something we did once a year for a festiv al in missouri. You get past the “screen zone” and hope you are done to only find out there is about 4 miles left. Some people may bash in and out, but nothing hits better than that little cup of water and the in and out burger they give you after the parade. It was a fun trip! Getting to see round rock at Disney was a fun experience!

[ooshkaboosh]

Nov 14, 2021 15:34:08 GMT -6 trumpette123 said:

Dying during the parade. A marching band show does not prepare you for this parade. Idk about Texas bands, but parade marching is something we did once a year for a festiv al in missouri.

This is very true, as we also do parades once or twice a year. In my case, we actually practiced for the Rose Parade by playing our music in a parade block around our high school track. Each week we added more laps to eventually have enough simulate the length of the parade. We also practiced the “TV turn.” I’m glad I was at least somewhat prepared, but even with the extra practice we had a few students have to drop the parade early and it was still very challenging. Doesn’t help that people had signs saying we were almost there… when we were 3 miles out!! However none of this changes the amazing experience that it was - by the time it was over I forgot how hard it was, I was just so proud of myself for doing it and was ready for some In N Out.

[trumpette123]

Nov 14, 2021 15:49:29 GMT -6 ooshkaboosh said:

Nov 14, 2021 15:34:08 GMT -6 trumpette123 said:

Dying during the parade. A marching band show does not prepare you for this parade. Idk about Texas bands, but parade marching is something we did once a year for a festiv al in missouri.

This is very true, as we also do parades once or twice a year. In my case, we actually practiced for the Rose Parade by playing our music in a parade block around our high school track. Each week we added more laps to eventually have enough simulate the length of the parade. We also practiced the “TV turn.” I’m glad I was at least somewhat prepared, but even with the extra practice we had a few students have to drop the parade early and it was still very challenging. Doesn’t help that people had signs saying we were almost there… when we were 3 miles out!! However none of this changes the amazing experience that it was - by the time it was over I forgot how hard it was, I was just so proud of myself for doing it and was ready for some In N Out.

I think I cried when I saw those “3 miles left” signs when I was already exhausted.

[doublegeez]

I know this is alittle bit out of the way, but,
Congrats to the Rosemount High School Marching band
For being invited to the Rose Parade in 2023 with Vista Ridge and 2 other bands! Very exciting for them!

[bigtrombone]

I can tell you my experience when I went with Lincoln, SD back when they last went in 2012-2013. Granted, our experience was different then other bands as we used a local travel company instead of MTC.

December 26th: Loaded buses at 6AM for the bus drive. Yep we took buses. Overall just a big travel day with a couple stops at rest areas in Nebraska and a dinner stop in Cheyenne, WY. We continued to drive through the night.

December 27th: We arrived in Las Vegas, NV around 11AM. We had brunch at Circus Circus casino (which was just awful), went to the Hoover Dam, had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then took a tour of the strip.

December 28th: We had a practice that morning at one of UNLV's practice fields, and that afternoon we made the last leg of the trip to the LA area. We had dinner that evening at Midieval Times. The food was OK, but the overall atmosphere and the jousting was great.

December 29th: We had a parade practice that morning in our hotel parking lot and then spent the rest of the day at Disneyland. We marched in the parade there which was pretty cool. Lines were pretty long for rides but was worth it.

December 30th: We had our Bandfest performance this day. We got In' N Out Burgers prior to the performance. Our performance went well and the crowd response was great. What always stuck in my mind after the performance was when we were heading back to the buses. On the way back, we passed by Broken Arrow, who cheered and clapped for us. It just made me feel good. Afterwards we went to the Farmer's Market and The Grove which was pretty fun.

December 31st: We spent the entire day at Universal Studios. I actually preferred it to Disneyland.

January 1st: Parade Day! We got up at 5 AM for a 5 mile parade. I felt it afterwards but getting to the end and getting a In 'N Out Burger felt very rewarding. We spent the afternoon at St. Monica Beach and then had dinner that evening on the Queen Mary.

January 2nd: First Day of the return trip back to Sioux Falls.

January 3rd: We finally got back to Sioux Falls around 7:30 PM CDT.

[hostrauser]

My wife was lucky enough to march in the parade back in 1991. She has a few pieces of advice/knowledge to pass on.

• The parade route is five miles. Add in the staging zones at both ends and you'll be hiking about seven miles all told. You'll be on your feet non-stop for a couple of hours. Prepare.
• Floats break down shockingly often. You will not be constantly moving. Be ready for stops and starts.
• It's southern California in winter, and southern California is coastal desert. It will most likely be sunny, not rainy ("It never rains on the Rose Parade!" is a local saying). But it could be 40ºF and sunny or it could be 80ºF and sunny. Be ready for either.

[supersound]

I remember there being a debacle about inviting traditionally non-parade bands to the Rose Parade because they were consistently “underperforming” because they weren’t used to the demand.

Noted I definitely don’t feel that way but I do remember their being some sort of controversy surrounding it, maybe around the time Round Rock went? My memory is fuzzy.

[bigtrombone]

Nov 23, 2021 10:37:54 GMT -6 hostrauser said:

• Floats break down shockingly often. You will not be constantly moving. Be ready for stops and starts.

I remember this happening during the 2019 parade when a float broke down right before it could turn onto Colorado Boulevard and it happened right in front of Lincoln-Way.

[kvgdc]

1988 marcher here. I'm sure loads has changed.

The tour:

1. The field showcase wasn't a thing in our time. Instead we contracted to play a standstill set at Knott's Berry Farm and a shorter set at Disneyland that got us entry to each park. The Michigan State fans there for the football game were quite confused as to why we were playing "Go U Northwestern!" (which was the tune for our school song). We also did Universal Studios, which was fun. Also the Queen Mary.

2. We also did the Farmer's Market upon arrival. But were late as our "bus tour of LA" from the airport to the Farmer's Market got stuck in an infamous traffic jam. We got there after a bunch of the shops had closed. The toilet on our charter bus was broken and so everyone in our bus was DESPERATE for the bathroom. I was one of the first of the guys to beeline into the men's room only to find there were no doors to the stalls and RIGHT THERE was a homeless guy taking some 'personal pleasure time.' Welcome to California! We just ugh...turned to the other toilets and did our business and left..warning those on the way to the toilets. We saw a Korean family headed that way with a little boy and were like "NO NO NO". But language barriers sort of prevented understanding and..yeah..I don't know how that ended. The market shops were closed (this was to have been our dinner, so we were hungry.) But they let us mill around. The only shop open for the most part looked to be a gift shop that, after a bunch of us were milling in there, we realized was an "adult gift shop" which led to a panicky store owner telling the chaperones we had to get these kids under 18 out of here...we had a good laugh about that on the busses on the way to the hotel that night. Where we were in another traffic jam, that featured a flaming car in a wreck on the shoulder.

It really was a 'welcome to the big city, you Hoosiers!' first day!


3. We not only toured where the floats were made but were set up to volunteer to assist in the finishing as there's a lot of last minute things done to ensure they're entirely covered with plant material.  We were split into groups as we entered as the float teams were basically "we need 4 to do X" or "we need 12 to Y."  This was particularly cool as we'd watch the parade tape later and "I worked on that!  See those orange peels that make the elephant's blanket cape?  I did that!"  But...if you can, get 'flower tent runner' duty. The flower tent is amazing with all the various plants.  The warehouses where construction happened smelled mostly of....industrial grade glue. 


4. Our 'band banquet on trip' was at a place in Chinatown (by vote of the students) and super duper authentic.  I loved every bit but it was apparent pretty quick that some were expecting the very Americanized Chinese food typical of a popular place back home. The band split between "those who would not eat a number of the dishes cause..what am I eating" and "Bring it over to my table then please."  Until the last dish when someone was "finally, it's chicken nuggets in some sauce. I can eat this."  I took a bite and between stuffed mouth chewing, "its duck.  It's sweet and sour duck."  [some mild panic ensues from some of the girls] "What did you say this is?"  [swallows]. "It's sweet and sour duck, you know...quack quack. Like Donald over there [points to someone's Donald Duck hat they got at Disneyland that day.]". [panicked 'ewwwww' ensues from the "will not eat" crowd].  Some of us ate like kings and queens that day.


Pre-parade:

1. Wake up call is absurdly early. Celebrate NYE with the ball drop in Times Square at 9 AM PST, then head to the hotel with lights out no later than 10:30. Kids will stay up but remind them, you'll be getting up in a few short hours to warm up, load the busses, then get to the staging area at an absurdly early time. Particularly if you are early in the parade order (we were about midway I think.)

2. We were advised to have trash bags that we could have over our midwestern 80s woolen type uniforms for the morning line up. The idea being that you could just tear them off when it was time to go and pass them down the ranks for a parent/volunteer to collect and dispose of. We thought this overkill, California is warm compared to Indiana, right? It was not. The wind and chill were nothing like what we rehearsed in marching through neighborhoods and around the school lot in December of course, but we didn't have full winter gear on either. Fortunately we did garbage bags for a fundraiser and had nice heavy ones. The band from Hawaii next to us in the staging area did not have bags, nor did they have very thick uniforms. They were freezing like mad. As we were to step off, the order came to tear off our bags. Seniors down the ranks had agreed in concert with the seniors in the Hawaii band. "Band! Ten-Hut! Remove your shakos and carefully pull your bag off and hand it guide right down the rank. [Hawaii band drum majors, Band! Ten-hut! Ranks guide left! Align with the orange band!" And we passed our bags down to some very grateful people.

Parade itself:

1. It's a long parade. As mentioned from your starting zone to the park at the end is like 7 1/2 miles. You'll be spending a good 30 min in 'screen zone' where you'll be playing non-stop, otherwise the cameras go off and they go to commercials.

2. The configuration of your parade block will probably have to change. We had to 'shorten' our profile considerably off our usual ranks of 8 with guard in front and back to ranks of 10 with guard along the sides

3. "The turn" in the screen zone is a very very wide turn. Your band should be practicing that turn to keep ranks straight. If you're on the swing side of the ranks, you will be hauling it while playing. If you're on the side of the ranks, you'll be trying to figure out how to keep the file so the ranks don't go crooked. Consider it every bit as demanding as a stand out field show drill move.

4. The "white tuxedos" are for real security. I remember a rather drunken lady staggering out of the stands at one point on the route slurring, "I'm gonna join the MARCHING band!" and getting body tackled by two dudes in the tuxes. Yes, she became a meme for the next band season.

5. When you do the turn that let's you see the Sierra Madre mountains and your band director encourages you with, "There's the Sierra Madre! We're almost to the finish!" Do. Not. Believe. Him. There's a long way to go.

6. Encourage your director to have the band run their tunes before the official start. There's neighborhoods you'll be going through with locals that turn out and they get very excited when the bands give them some music. Also, this may have changed, but in the day, they just tagged all the wheelchair accessible seating at the end of the route with the parade was pretty much falling apart. If that's the case, save one last round of tunes for them, they'll love you and it's super memorable.

Post-parade:

1. Despite the cool morning, we were sweltering by the end of the parade. One of our trombone players in the rank ahead of us nearly passed out, he was taken from the rank toward the end for some medical attention.

2. There's a park where you end and can relax a bit. This is the only time in my life I actually liked the taste of Dr. Pepper....it was the only beverage left in the coolers at the time. Your time will be limited there though as it is the debrief area for all the bands and you must vacate before the next one arrives.

3. We skipped the football game itself on the advice of the organizers. Although this disappointed many of us upon the announcement of the agenda for the trip, we were grateful that day for the most part as we were wiped out. Instead, we were bussed to Venice Beach where we went out in the usual midwestern winter shorts and sweatshirt and flip flops attire to wade in the water as local Californians looked at us like we were insane. I think the temps were in the low 70s? We laughed. Some of us went full on and swam.

Parents;

The parent booster group set up a package tour with the help of a local travel agent that coordinated the airfares and the band stuff with the Rose Parade hosting group for us. But it was a 'separate tour' so they had different times and days at the park. The only overlap was the Universal Studios day. In the end, that worked well as it let us have our trip and fun as a band with a our peers (and the usual band bus parents). While they had their tour. They were unable to get a single large block in the stands so they were split into various smaller blocks on the parade route itself. Only some got to be in the screen zone. Although we played for each of our parent blocks as they were visibly easy to spot in their bright orange booster jackets with shakers and losing their damn minds as we approached.


I don't recall a picture day for us. They did official pictures while we were in the screen zone somewhere though and then we could order 16x24 prints of them. They did a number of them including as much of the full band as they could and then sections where you could see faces.

Obviously, despite this being 34 years ago this coming parade, I remember it all like it was yesterday.  It's a very memorable and fantastic experience. You'll also never watch the parade the same way again. Every year you'll be telling someone, "I did this parade back in ____... and these kids are nailing it. [enter old man telling band stories mode..]"

[LeanderMomma]

I’m totally enjoying reading all of these parade stories!!!

[kvgdc]

It really is a great time.  Worth all the hassle of fundraising and logistics.  Every bit.

Oh and you'll get the flag to use in retreats and appearances the entire year before you go.  

Lining up for contests and trotting in with the color guard sporting that Rose Parade flag was always a nice touch.  

[supersound]

Nov 26, 2021 11:18:49 GMT -6 kvgdc said:

It really is a great time.  Worth all the hassle of fundraising and logistics.  Every bit.

Oh and you'll get the flag to use in retreats and appearances the entire year before you go.  

Lining up for contests and trotting in with the color guard sporting that Rose Parade flag was always a nice touch.  

I remember seeing Flower Mound carrying that flag in back in the 2018 season. They always seemed so proud.

[kvgdc]

Bump. Looking forward to the 34th edition of “pancakes and the Rose Parade while remembering every moment of my year”.

[Cadence switches to roll off and English Folk Song Suite starts playing in my head]