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Fresh off their performance in this New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses parade in California, members of the Lincoln-Way Marching Band learned Monday they’re headed to the other coast next year to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Lincoln-Way was selected from more than 100 applicants as one of nine selected bands to march in the 94th edition of the parade, and it’s the first time the band has performed in the parade. It is the only Illinois high school band selected for the 2020 parade.
The band, with some 300 members, is comprised of students from Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210’s three schools.
Parade and school officials, including band directors, had known about the school’s selection, which was kept a secret until an announcement Monday night during what was supposed to be a relatively routine start-of-the-season meeting for band members and parents.
“I’m really surprised, I’m really happy,” Tyler Utt, a sophomore from Tinley Park said after hearing the news. A percussionist, Utt marched with the band in the Tournament of Roses parade.
His mother, Gina, said 10 members of the family traveled to Pasadena and she’s certain they’ll be going to New York City for the Macy’s parade.
“Not a doubt,” she said.
According to parade organizers, the parade’s band committee looks for bands “that have the stage presence, musical and marching abilities to captivate more than 3.5 million live spectators and more than 50 million viewers.”
“As the reigning Illinois Marching Band Grand Champions, Lincoln-Way is clearly a band of the highest caliber,” Wesley Whatley, the parade’s creative producer, said in announcing Lincoln-Way’s selection.
The band was named 2018 Grand Champions at the State of Illinois Marching Band Championships at Illinois State University last October.
“There are very few accomplishments that hold the status of the Macy’s Parade in the marching band community. We are truly honored, overwhelmed and humbled by being selected to perform in this magnificent national Thanksgiving Day tradition,” Bert Johnson, Lincoln-Way’s director of bands, said. “Our students past and present have worked hard to make this ensemble something our community, families, and the school district are proud of and we are incredibly grateful to be designated with this honor.”
Whatley, who delivered the news to an auditorium filled with band members and parents at Lincoln-Way East in Frankfort, told them parade organizers “look for the best of the best,” and the Lincoln-Way is one of just six high school marching bands taking part in the 2020 parade.
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Himself a drum major for three years in his high school band in Georgia, Whatley said before the announcement that the band selection committee for the parade looks for “bands that have performances with impact” and units that are “unafraid of making a bold impact.”
Between now and Thanksgiving 2020, the band will be busy with rehearsals and raising money for its New York visit. One fundraiser for the trip to the Rose Parade featured the 1980s band Night Ranger.
Lincoln-Way learned in September 2017 that it had been picked for the 2019 Rose Parade, and the school had previously been part of the parade in 1982 and 2000. Nearly 80 high school bands had applied to participate in this year’s parade, and Lincoln-Way was the only high school marching band from Illinois in the event.
Band members learned they were going to Pasadena during a video presentation at Lincoln-Way Central in New Lenox, with each musician receiving a rose at the end.
During this year’s parade, a float directly in front of the band caught fire and had to be towed from the parade route. Nobody was hurt and Lincoln-Way continued on the route.
As part of the band’s preparation for the 5½-mile Rose Parade route, the band marched in back-to-back parades on Sunday and Monday during last year’s Labor Day weekend, first in the Frankfort Fall Fest parade then in Manhattan’s Labor Day parade the next day. The Macy’s parade route is more then two miles.
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.