“It’s a great day to be Mountaineer” — We have finished up practice and now are headed to the stadium area for the rest of the day. After lunch we will have as couple of mini-band performances. There are several tailgates that they will be performing before we head into the stadium.
New change…FOX has decided to switch the performance order for the bands. WVU will be performing first at pre-game and second for halftime. FOX is going to be giving us a fair amount of coverage this evening.
LET’S GO MOUNTAINEERS!!
FYI…With such a busy day — Photos and videos may not be posted until tomorrow.
It was a beautiful day for rehearsal. The band went through pregame and halftime music and drill. Since there were some members that didn’t make it on the trip some adjustments had to be made to compensate for the missing people.
The band’s pregame show will be shorter than what fans see at Mountaineer Field due to time constraints. The halftime show will combine selections from some of the band’s shows during the 2007 season, including “Malaga,” “House of The Rising Sun,” and “My Favorite Things.”
The music being played during the video is a recording of “Malaga.”
The busses are loaded and we are heading to the Pittsburgh airport. Our planes are not scheduled to take-off until 3:20/4:00 a.m.
It will take two jets — a Boeing 767 and a 757 — to fly about 350 WVU Marching Band members to Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl. According to Jay Drury, the band’s director, Delta Airlines didn’t own a plane big enough to carry them all at once.
Drury said he also had to calculate band member and instrument weight for the group’s charter flight. The band weighs 68,641 pounds, and the instruments weigh 5,915 pounds. “I hope the plane has big engines, that’s all I have to say,” Drury said.
During the trip I will send short text messages using Twitter. Twitter is an online service that enables you to broadcast short messages to your friends or “followers.” This will allow you to get updates on where we are and what we are doing. You can view the latest messages above or visit http://twitter.com/wvuband for the complete list.
No WVU bowl appearance would be complete without the WVU Marching Band. So for those who aren’t traveling to Arizona, we want to bring ‘The Pride’ to you. This is our way to connect the families and fans with the University experience.
Beginning on Sunday, December 30th, “Follow the Pride”, as we provide periodic updates on the happenings of the band during the trip. These will be in several forms - text messages, photos, and video highlights.
We will bring you reports from all the band’s rehearsals as well as the performances. The performances will include those at the Insight Fiesta Bowl Block Party, College Football’s Biggest Party, and of course, during the pre-game and halftime activities at the game.
