It can be hard keeping a secret, but music directors at Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210 were able to accomplish that before announcing Thursday to marching band members that they’ll head to California in 2025 to appear in the Tournament of Roses Parade.
It will be the fourth appearance for the group, which is comprised of students from the district’s three schools. The district learned a few weeks ago of its selection for the parade, to be held on New Year’s Day in Pasadena.
Officials had to stay mum about the news, said Justin Barnish, one of four members of the directing team for the band.
“It’s hard to do that,” he said. “The directors were so excited about the news.”
Students were told Thursday following a rehearsal in the Lincoln-Way East auditorium in Frankfort, where a video revealed the news, Barnish said.
“They were all jumping up and down, screaming” after hearing the announcement, he said.
The band first appeared in the Rose Parade in 1982 then again in 2000, with the most recent trip to Pasadena in 2019.
Barnish was with the band for that California trip, and it was memorable to band members and TV viewers when a float in front of them became disabled and caught fire.
“It was an interesting wrinkle,” he said, recalling band members made a hasty detour around the float.
Otherwise, “it was a truly breathtaking experience,” Barnish said.
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“Looking up and seeing thousands and thousands of people watching was amazing,” he said.
Barnish said band officials will begin preparing for the trip and their performance, but are still in the heat of competition.
The band will travel to Indianapolis next week for the two-day Bands of America Indianapolis Super Regional at Lucas Oil Stadium. More than 70 marching bands from throughout the Midwest are expected to compete, and Lincoln-Way last year was named a Bands of America Grand Nationals Semifinalist.
At Indianapolis, Lincoln-Way will perform its field show production “Interstellar.”
Using music from the movie, the show evokes “this idea of being among the stars,” with props including three-dimensional stars atop the helmets of marchers, Barnish said.
Following the 2016 closure of Lincoln-Way North High School in Frankfort, the district’s three remaining high schools in Frankfort and New Lenox combined to form one community marching band.
Along with Barnish, other members of the directing team are Cary Ruklic, Christopher Mroczek and Bert Johnson.
Lincoln-Way performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2021, an appearance that had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The band learned in spring 2019 that it was chosen for the 2020 parade, but the COVID-19 pandemic reduced that to essentially a TV-only event.
The invitation carried over to 2021, and the band performed a shortened version of its show production at the time, “Metamorphosis,” which depicted the transformation of band members from green caterpillars to multicolored butterflies.
It was in April 2019, just months after their Rose Parade appearance, that band members learned of Lincoln-Way’s selection for the Macy’s parade.
Barnish said the success of the music program at Lincoln-Way is due to ongoing support of the communities the district serves, and said news of the Rose Parade selection is “something to be celebrated” throughout the district.