By Camas Frank
A group of 220 Cal Poly student musicians is headed to San Francisco on March 7 to take part in the Lunar New Year Parade through Chinatown.
The University’s Associate Director of Bands, Chris Woodruff is getting the word
out about the Mustang’s second trip to the parade in case any locals want to come along. The trip is sponsored by the school, he said, with help on arrangements from the University President’s Office.
Last year a band member’s parents asked what it would take to get the band in their local parade and that local parade happened to be the “Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade.”
It will take five busses to get all of the Mustang Band members and their gear to the parade, where they’ll play for an hour along the route from Market and Second streets to Kearny and Jackson. Woodruff said they’ve got a couple of rousing fight songs and drum numbers to keep the energy up.
Last year, Poly won the prize for “Best Adult Band” in the parade of 85 organizations. It’s an effort for the students to prepare and make the journey, but they’re representing Cal Poly and the Central Coast so they’ve got to be ready.
“We are in full ‘basketball band’ mode now,” Woodruff said, “but we’ve added four rehearsals to our weekends to prepare for the parade. I’m pretty sure our group is the furthest to travel to be a part of the parade.”
As an added bonus, before the main event the students will join with students from UC Davis for a joint concert in front of the Ferry Building on Market Street.
“That’s always fun,” Woodruff added. “We don’t get to join up with other bands all that often.”
