IStock Photo 1225659 © uilleann

This year, more than 53.5 million people will watch Macy’s annual Thanksgiving Day Parade®. Spectators and TV viewers will get to see more than 8,000 parade participants, including 1,500 cheerleaders and 800 clowns; 50 huge character balloons, filled with up to 16,200 cubic feet of helium; 24 floats; the Rockettes; and Santa Claus.

And of course, the marching bands. Every year, Macy’s chooses nine marching bands from across the nation to appear in its parade and play medleys of popular and traditional holiday music. The odds a high school will see its marching band appear in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade are 1 in 1,375. This year, those bands are:

• Adair County High School: Columbia, KY (100 members)
• Frank W. Ballou Senior High School: Washington, DC (107 members)
• Choctawhatchee High School: Fort Walton Beach, FL (225 members)
• Franklin Regional High School: Murrysville, PA (194 members)
• Harrison High School: Kennesaw, GA (203 members)
• Morgantown High School: Morgantown, WV (240 members)
• Pickerington Central High School: Pickerington, OH (250 members)
• Pittsburg High School: Pittsburg, CA (140 members)
• Towson University: Towson, MD (176 members)

Just how does a high school make it into the parade? They must submit an extensive application to Macy’s, complete with videos of public performances, a list of awards, letters of recommendation, a history of the band program, and a brief biography of the band director. From the many applications Macy’s gets each year, bands are chosen not just for their marching and musical talents but for their ability to dazzle.

Adair County HS Band Director Tom Case recalls the day his marching band was picked to be in the parade: it was a “special ceremony (the students and community did not know about it) in May of 2008. A Macy’s rep flew into Nashville, drove to Columbia, KY, and presented the band with the official Macy’s Invitation: a drum head with the Macy’s Parade logo.”

Asked if his students are nervous about performing in front of 53.5 million people, Case writes that they are “excited and anxious, but not nervous. This band is used to performing in front of large audiences, and has an incredible history of success.”

Each marching band adds something distinctive to the Thanksgiving Day experience. In an email interview, Macy’s Media Relations Manager Orlando Veras emphasizes the marching bands’ importance to the parade: “Each band is unique, they all offer something special. The common thread is that they are all musical and marching talents. They bring superb musical abilities, great marching, and performance skill that will entertain the Parade’s millions of spectators. They are the musical beat of the procession.”

The nine bands in this year’s parade will have to wait awhile to apply for another Macy’s parade appearance. “There is no limit on how many times a school band may appear in the Parade,” notes Mr. Veras. “The only criterion is that they must wait 5 years before reapplying for the Parade once they perform.”

Macy’s also selects 250 individual students from all 50 states for the parade’s tenth, unique musical group: the Macy’s Great American Marching Band. Selection processes are similar—videos of performances, lists of awards, letters of recommendation—and this tenth marching band rounds out the 1,885 band members lucky enough to march over the red star in front of Macy’s Herald Square this year.

For most of the Adair County HS Marching Band, this will be their first trip to New York City. “Everyone is looking forward to and embracing the experience,” writes Case. “It is a once in a lifetime event, and each day we are up there will provide memories that we will carry for quite some time.”