Fitchburg High School band members to march in 2025 Rose Parade in California
FITCHBURG - Eleven members of Fitchburg High School's marching band are in southern California for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They'll be performing in the 136th Rose Parade, along with some of the country's top marching bands.
The students were accepted into the New England Honor Band, which is one of 20 marching bands from around the world chosen to participate in the tradition before the Rose Bowl game on New Year's Day in Pasadena.
The band has a total of about 300 students who are representing all six New England states.
The students have been very busy preparing for the event, performing their music while walking laps around the school cafeteria, so they're physically ready for the 5.5-mile route. It's an honor all of the students are excited about.
"Really spectacular"
"We have a really wide variety of students that have all been accepted and represent all New England states," Fitchburg High School band director Tabitha Greenlees told WBZ-TV. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Most bands do not get to have this chance to be able to march in the Tournament of Roses Parade, so for them to be able to do that and to represent their own individual communities and to represent New England more broadly, I think, is really spectacular."
The New England Honor band will perform around 12:12 p.m. Massachusetts time, halfway through the parade, on Wednesday, January 1. The students will wear outfits similar to those worn by military musicians during the American Revolution.
Massachusetts bands at the Rose Parade
Massachusetts has been represented at the parade in the past.
The Fitchburg High School marching band was the first high school band from Massachusetts to participate in the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day in 1962.
The UMass Minuteman marching band was one of the 20 bands selected in 2018. The 400 members of the band performed the UMass fight song, "Firework" by Katy Perry, and "God Bless America."
