Lakeville South marching band students are putting the finishing touches on an upcoming performance that will take them across the pond for St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland.
100 students are headed to Ireland to march in a parade starting a Kilkenny Castle on March 16th, followed by the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin on March 17th, and then the Limerick International Band Championship Parade on March 18th.
It’s the second trip to Ireland since 2018 for Lakeville South Bands under the direction of Chad Bieniek, who began teaching at South in 2015.
“It's a parade that you have to apply about two years in advance to have your kids perform in,” Bieniek said. “Then once you perform in that first parade, it's kind of like The Master’s golf tournament and you can call them and say ‘Okay, we want to come again in this year.’”
Lakeville South planned to return to Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic, but due to restrictions, the programs opted to embark on a domestic trip.
With the band scheduled to travel every other year, 2024 meant it was time once again to go to Ireland.
“I think it’s super exciting,” said Whitney Welch, a senior who’s part of the Lakeville South Marching Band drumline. “I’ve never done this before. We went to Hawaii two years ago, which was awesome. Being able to go with the whole band and all of your friends is super cool.”
Bieniek says the purpose of traveling with the marching band isn’t solely just to travel. Instead, it’s also to give students the opportunity a chance to perform in front of thousands, possibly millions, of people.
“We travel to put kids in front of a lot of people and to experience,” he said. “The Dublin parade, there could be up to one million people at this parade.”
The trip is just one of over 600 performance opportunities for students throughout the school year.
“It can definitely be a lot of like going home after pep bands to do your homework,” said Jay Rief, a drum major in the marching band. “You kind of learn as you grow to balance your studies and band.”
Prepping for the Ireland trip actually began in summer 2023.
“We wrote our summer parade as one that we could perform in Ireland,” Bieniek said. “We’re playing Shipping Up to Boston because it’s an Irish jig, it’ll go really well there. Then we picked a Motown favorite of Stevie Wonder music. We’ll play those two back-to-back.”
The performances also act as an opportunity to generate interest in band.
Concert band numbers “exploded” starting in 2015 until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bieniek says the “COVID-blip” had an impact on that growth.
“They’re starting to build-up numbers in the middle school again to then come back to the high school. Pure numbers in concert bands is down a little bit because concert band during covid was no good on our computers.”
Three new classes were introduced to students at the start of the school year including music production and music lab.
“Band has really opened-up my personality,” Welch said. “It made be become a better person, build community, and better friends.”
Lessons learned in the classroom and during performances are ones Reif knows will last a lifetime.
“I definitely learned how to open up around people and I felt my leadership and skillset grow with how much you have to interact with people, perform, and show discipline and passion.”
As for getting all the equipment over to Ireland, that’s another story.
“We do take it all on the airplane with us,” Bieniek said with a laugh. “We have to weigh and measure everything. Then we send all that to the airline so we can get over there. With it being marching band performances, we can take everything, we don’t have to rent anything there. Our leadership and students are awesome at organizing their stuff. We just get it all organized and take it with us.”
In total, Lakeville will be sending over 200 people to Ireland as part of the trip as part of a tandem friends and family trip with many of the students’ parents opting to attend.
“It’s a lot to do, but it’s a ton of fun,” added Bieniek.