On March 13, the marching band and color guard were marching around the LHS front parking lot with cold fingers and colder instruments, practicing their parade music. Some were in shorts, perhaps wishful thinking for 48 hour later when they would be in 80-degree weather.  Less than twenty-four hours later, they would be off to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida aboard two charter buses loaded down with luggage, uniforms, and lots of snacks.

This has long been the tradition for the marching band, and it hasn’t failed yet, thanks to the leadership of director Kevin Lloyd and critical assistance from Mr. Jeremy Brown and the Band Boosters.

“[Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Brown] make connections with everyone that services the band; they pay and plan [for the trip] months in advance,” said Allie Hudson, a member of the Class of 2018 who has been participating in marching band since freshman year. “It’s pretty much a legitimate business. They should have an award.”

Brown flies down a two days in advance to make sure everything for the students from rooms to MagicBands are in order for students when they arrive. Dye travels with the band as a chaperone.

Though all band and color guard students look forward to the spring Disney trips, they are not annual. Between each biennial Disney journey, the students take to the streets of New York City to perform in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This was the case last year in March 2017. The purpose for the difference in trips every year is to allow students to get a taste of several different types of parade performances and to provide a different experience each time they travel.

It’s easy to make the Disney trips different–there’s so much to do in each park that it’s impossible to cover it all in a span of less than a week (The trip has to be cut short this year due to a loss of spring break days.). Most band students will travel to Disney twice during high school.  This year and in 2015, the band stayed at Pop Century resort, once of the Disney properties.  They travel by bus to and from the parks.

“We have the freedom to walk through the parks with our friends. Personally, I love the rides,” said Class of 2019 member Avalon Gravley. This is her third year of band and second trip to Disney.

The highlight of the trip, though, is the band’s performance in a Disney parade. This year, the parade will take place on Saturday, March 17, which is also St. Patrick’s Day. Linganore’s band will be one of three bands to “introduce” the main part of the parade, which will step off after 3:00 p.m.

Although the parade cannot be viewed online or on television, everyone can still support the band and color guard by encouraging  friends and family to come out to one of the winter guard’s competitions or consider joining the band next school year.