Glad Thanksgiving: The Pleasure of West Virginia goes to the Macy’s parade

What sport?

The Pleasure goes to the Parade.

Halftime at Saturday night time’s Yard Brawl matchup in Morgantown between WVU and Pitt carried a non-gridiron announcement that also put the Mountaineer devoted on their ft.

That’s when it turned identified that WVU’s famend Pleasure of West Virginia Marching Band has been invited to take part within the equally famend Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York Metropolis.

Macy’s officers selected the large sport for the large announcement.

“For greater than 100 years, the Mountaineer marching band has entertained audiences, from hometown halftime exhibits to parade routes and venues throughout the nation,” mentioned Wesley Whatley, the Macy’s artistic producer who helps manage the parade for the enduring division retailer.

It’s a sonic mix of pageantry and magnificence, he continued.

“Macy’s is proud to welcome again the proficient college students of West Virginia College to the Huge Apple,” Whatley mentioned.

The band, which was chosen from greater than 100 candidates nationwide, final carried out within the 2016 parade.

“The Pleasure of West Virginia is thrilled to as soon as once more convey the wonder and tradition of the Mountain State to the streets of New York,” band director Cheldon Williams mentioned.

Scott Tobias, who additionally directs bands on the Evansdale campus of the Faculty of Inventive Arts joined the refrain.

The Macy’s parade, Tobias mentioned, “is among the grandest levels” for any marching band.

Particularly, he mentioned, a sure one from West Virginia.

“On Thanksgiving Day 2024, Tobias mentioned, “New York’s metropolis streets will probably be full of ‘Nation Roads.’”

Whereas audiences in a number of different states and locales throughout the U.S. have additionally thrilled to the musicianship and showmanship of the WVU’s sonic emissaries, these appearances elsewhere, nonetheless, aren’t essentially what makes the band well-known.

It’s when the Pleasure pops up throughout West Virginia.

Elementary colleges.

Ribbon-cuttings.

Band spectaculars for the highschool marching assemblages in your space.

“Easy Presents.”

“Hail, West Virginia.”

“Nation Roads.”

All these signature tunes, and extra.

The Pleasure of West Virginia’s greater than 300 college students signify each just about each main on WVU’s downtown and Evansdale campuses.

Within the meantime, Macy’s offered the band with a $10,000 examine to jumpstart the fundraising required to get to the large city come Thanksgiving.  

And about that nickname: In line with band lore, “The Pleasure of West Virginia” deal with was coined by a nationwide announcer masking the soccer staff’s look within the 1975 Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

The band made it official not lengthy after.