This past Saturday, the marching band, along with color guard, performed at the 74th Annual Covina Christmas Parade for the 30th year. Band decorated their instruments with garland and lights and wore Santa hats, while color guard wore red dresses and carried bare flags.
The parade started at 6:30 p.m. and ended at 8:30 p.m., the route began at Citrus Avenue and Badillo Street, went west on Badillo Street to Hollenbeck Avenue and turned south on Hollenbeck Avenue to Puente Street. During the parade, there were marching bands from high schools and middle schools, like Northview and South Hills High School, and Hollencrest Middle School.
There were also dance teams, cheer teams and different clubs and organizations in floats from the city of Covina, like the Soroptimist International, which is an organization of women working to improve the lives of women, and the West Covina Hills Pathfinder Club, which is a youth church program focused on spiritual growth, outdoor skills and community service.
Sophomore and color guard member, Isabella Alonso, enjoyed the parade experience and performing with band even though it was difficult at times.
“Even though it’s (flag tosses) the hardest part (while walking), it’s really fun,” Alonso said.
There were also vendors selling foods like hot dogs, cookies and hot cocoa and lit-up inflatables, and other toys during the parade, sophomore Fernanda Miranda said these vendors improved the experience of the parade.
“A lot of people were sitting there for a long time, and people do get hungry. And I feel like it’s more enjoyable to have something too much on when watching festivities,” Miranda said.
The marching band and color guard practiced for two weeks in preparation for this parade. They practiced from 5 to 9 and performed two songs during the parade, “Sleigh Ride” and “Santa Meets Sousa”. Junior and band member, Nathan Mayo, enjoyed band practices to be around friends, but found certain practices demanding.
“I would say showing up to practice , because it ends kind of late,” Mayo said.
Days before the parade, people set up chairs to save their seats because of how crowded the seating places get. The chairs were placed in front of Covina Park and all around the parade route. This parade is a popular event for the people of Covina and thousands of people attend every year.
Principal Charles Park believes that this parade experience is important to the band and color guard because it keeps students disciplined.
“It’s difficult to do because you have the weekend, you have to get on a bus, or it’s a holiday,” Park said.
This parade is an opportunity for band and color guard students to give back to the community with the arts and learn practice and performance techniques. Band teacher Steve Olivas enjoys how easy and relaxed the band can be with the music, but still have to be exact when marching.
“We have to put in that little more effort to make sure that we look good and all our lines are straight, all our rows are straight, and the sound is balanced,” Olivas said.
