As the pink of twilight peeked through the November clouds, Temple University’s Diamond Marching Band, instruments and flags in tote, practiced on the campus’ Geasey Field.
They ran through selections by Taylor Swift and from the movie KPop Demon Hunters while athletic bands director Matthew Brunner studied their sound and formation from a scissor lift 25 feet in the air.
“Notes should be long,” Brunner called out over a microphone after one selection. “Don’t try to play them too short.”
There were few spectators that afternoon. But that’s about to change in a big way.
The 200-member band is one of only 11 that have been selected to participate in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. It’s a first for Temple, which will be the only band from Pennsylvania or New Jersey in this year’s parade. More than 30 million people likely will be watching from home and 3.5 million in person, if prior numbers are any indication.
That’s a lot of exposure for the Cherry and White, which could be a boost for recruitment and fundraising.
“I can scarcely think of a better way to bring visibility to Temple,” said John Fry, Temple’s president.
And that visibility could lead to more people visiting Temple’s website and seeing what the university has to offer, he said.
“It’s going to be incredible for the university,” said Brunner, who initially announced Temple’s band had been selected for the parade in August 2024. “There’s no television event, other than the Super Bowl, that is bigger.”
The excitement is palpable among students, some of whose families plan to attend the parade.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Erin Flanagan, 21, who grew up watching the parade with her family and notes she wanted to march in it since she was 6. “I mean, the Macy’s parade is iconic.”
The music education major from Manasquan, N.J., who is a senior, said it likely will be her last performance with the band, and she could not have scripted it better.
“I get to go to this awesome performance and just show everybody what Temple stands for,” said Flanagan, an alto saxophone section leader.
It’s the 99th anniversary of the 2.5-mile parade, which kicks off about 8:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day on NBC and Peacock, hosted by Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker.
Lorali Minde, 18, a freshman from Levittown, will be marching while playing the tuba, a 36-pound instrument.
“You kind of get used to it,” she said. “It’s like carrying a really heavy purse.”
Brunner, who has led the marching band for 18 years, said he had applied to be in the parade several times before. It’s a competitive process, with more than 100 applicants vying for a spot. He had to submit video of a performance — he sent the 10-minute show the band did off the Barbie movie soundtrack — pictures of the band in uniform, reasons that Temple deserved a shot, and the band’s resume and biography.
When his wife saw the Barbie show, Brunner said, she texted him: “That’s the show you need to send to Macy’s.”
It proved a winner.
“They loved the fact that the music we play is current,” he said.
The honor comes at a special time for the band, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Brunner played that fact up in the application, too.
Under Brunner, the band has grown and has been hitting high marks. Over the years, the school has been recognized as one of the top collegiate marching bands in the nation by USA Today and Rolling Stone, appeared on Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and an episode of Madam Secretary, and was featured in two Hollywood movies, The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and the remake of Annie. Some of its performances have received millions of views on YouTube, including a 2018 performance of “Idol” by the K-pop group BTS, which currently has more than five million views on Ricky Swalm’s YouTube channel.
The band includes a color guard, a baton twirler, brass and woodwind instruments, a drum line, and a dance team. The group typically practices three times a week for two hours at a time.
“The band is infectious,” Brunner said. “When you see them perform, you can’t help but smile.”
Students have been eying the parade opportunity for a while.
When Flanagan was a sophomore, she asked Brunner point-blank: “When are we doing the Macy’s parade?”
Recently, she and her roommates, also band members, have been counting down the days on a whiteboard.
Brunner declined to say exactly what the band will perform on Thanksgiving, but promised a mix of holiday, audience participation, and Temple songs.
“We’re hoping for no wind,” he said.
Abigail Rosen, color guard captain, and her cocaptain are planning an “epic toss” of their flags over other band members, and wind could hinder it, he explained.
“It’s an exchange toss,” said Rosen, 20, a junior advertising major from Abington. “So I toss my flag to Dana [Samuelson] and she tosses her flag to me, and we catch each other’s flags.”
Bands selected received $10,000 from the retailer, which Temple officials said helped them get started on fundraising to pay for the trip.
The band will be heading to New York on Tuesday for an alumni event, then a performance on the Today show Wednesday. Band members will be up in the wee hours of the morning Thursday for a rehearsal, and after the parade, they will be treated by the school to a Thanksgiving dinner cruise along the Hudson River.
Andrew Malick, 20, a music education major from Carlisle, Pa., who plays the tuba, can’t wait.
“It will be cool to say you’ve done it for the rest of your life,” he said.
