Northwest Iowa — Area Hawkeye football fans are making their way to southern California to catch this week’s Rose Bowl game. The Hawkeye football team is working out in preparation for Friday’s Rose Bowl. But they aren’t the only ones.
The 245 members of the Iowa Marching Band have been doing some extra laps in Iowa City preparing to march in the Rose Bowl Parade. Now that they are in California, they’ll continue practicing for the five-and-a-half mile march. Director Kevin Kastens says they’ll also play the pre-game show and have the prestigious honor of playing the national anthem — which means everyone in the stadium will be watching. He says there will be fireworks in the middle of the anthem and it wraps up with a flyover by a B-2 bomber. Kastens says they have a lot to do in California.
The parade isn’t something new for the band, but the length of the parade on top of another performance is.
While they’ve had to do a little extra work for the physical aspect of marching, there isn’t a lot of extra music to learn.
He says they only play the fight song during the parade to acknowledge the Iowa fans.
The Rose Bowl is one of the top games for football teams, and Kastens says it also is a plum for the band.
The Hawkeye Marching Band has members from 72 communities in Iowa, 51 in Illinois, and six other states.
