FLEMING ISLAND \u2013 Band members and parents sat silently as Bob Bone provided details of a trip the school would be taking in 2027 to Madrid, Spain.<\/p>\n
Puzzled, Bone wondered why they didn\u2019t seem excited.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe they didn\u2019t fully comprehend the magnitude of the invitation. Perhaps after making trips to London, Rome, and Carnegie Hall, they had become\u00a0accustomed to accolades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then the school\u2019s principal, Thomas Pittman, broke the silence with a booming question.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you like to do that?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The room then erupted with cheers and screams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bone is the President of the Youth Music of the World and Destination Events. He was at the school on Friday, Oct. 31, to formally invite the Golden Eagles Marching Band to Spain\u2019s grandest national events, the Cabalgata de Reyes, a street show celebrating the arrival of the Three Kings on Epiphany, on Jan. 5, 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bone said parades are staged throughout Spain, but the biggest is in Madrid, where the three-mile route will attract more than two million spectators.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mayor of Madrid, Jos\u00e9 Luis Mart\u00ednez-Almeida, and the parade organizers also shared\u00a0an invitation to\u00a0Fleming Island, Bone said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fleming Island was one of two bands from the United States \u2013 and there are more than 5,500 marching bands in the country \u2013 that were invited to perform at the Cabalgata de Reyes. In all, Bone said only six bands will participate from around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s quite a magical and fantastic event,\u201d Bone said. “And, of course, the Madrid one is the one chosen to be televised all around the Spanish-speaking world. And they conduct a very professional, multi-camera live operation from start to finish. Everybody gets an awful lot of TV time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The band will depart on Dec. 30, 2026, and arrive the following day. They will tour Madrid, Toledo, Segovia and El Escorial. They will be treated to a variety of Spanish cuisines, including a selection of tapas dishes, as well as an evening of traditional flamenco dancing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you process along there, they’d like you to stop every now and then and go to the crowds and high-five and do whatever, because they just love to see you,” Bone said. \u201cIt really is fantastic. The crowd is expected to be around two million, with grandstands\u00a0lining the streets on both sides, all the way down the route.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The thing is that from the floats, they’re all equipped with tons and tons and tons of candy, sweets as we call them. And the thing is that all the people on the floats take handfuls of this stuff and throw it into the crowds as we go along.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Band director Alexander Buck said the band will fundraise\u00a0during the next 14 months to cover the trip costs. He estimated the cost to be $650,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sort of reached out and asked about how to apply, and because of our accolades and our hard work of the students, we were given this invitation,\u201d Buck said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked about the challenge of raising $650,000 in a little more than a year, Buck was adamantly confident the band would meet its goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ll get it done,\u201d he said. \u201cThe community always steps up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cabalgata de Reyes heralds the arrival of the three kings in every town, village, [and] city in Spain,\u201d Bone said. \u201cIt produces from its worthy citizenry, generally speaking, the mayor and other councilors, the three kings to be on a float dressed, some exotic. There’s all sorts of crazy stuff in these processions, a lot of musical stuff, bands \u2013 two from the United States of America.”<\/p>\n
Including one from Fleming Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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