Football season is huge for all athletes, but believe it or not, the band geeks get a thrill out of the season as well. The NRHS Band plays at every home game for Nashoba, but on Saturday, October 18th, some of our band members participated in UMASS Band Day. It’s an event where 78 high school bands join the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band, in Amherst,  for a day of practicing and a halftime performance.

Over 3800 high school students participated in this incredible learning experience, where students got to perform in front of up to 20,000 screaming fans at Gillette Stadium. The day started bright and early at 8 a.m. at Nashoba, where the band departed for Gillette. They then had rehearsal for their halftime performance for almost three hours, and took a break for lunch soon afterward. Kickoff started at three, and once half time began, the performers took the field and executed a thrilling half time performance, which included flag twirlers and dancers. The music performed was from mainly Disney and Pixar, with songs from The Incredibles, Up, and Toy Story. The day ended at 8 p.m. as the students headed back to their schools.

 From Nashoba, four seniors, three juniors, ten sophomores, and nine freshman attended the event, along with the band director, Mr. McCarthy. “It was breath-taking to see so many students performing at one time together,” he recalled, referring to his favorite part. He hopes that events like this will expand the future of the Band Program at Nashoba.

It was Mr. Mcarthy’s first time attending the event with Nashoba, but it wasn’t Nashoba’s first time going. The tradition has gone on for so long, Mr. McCarthy couldn’t even find when this event originally started happening at Nashoba. Many of the band members look forward to this event every year, simply to experience the interaction between people who have a similar passion to them.