The marching band at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is headed to San Francisco on March 7 to participate in the largest Chinese New Year celebration outside of Asia.
"This is a really special experience for our band," said marching band drum major Cole Fisher. Fisher added that he’s excited to be representing San Luis Obispo at such a big event.
"I'm responsible for conducting the band, their music, teaching them musical things, and teaching them how to march. This is us representing our university. This is representing our city with a really, really large audience watching this, and that's their impression of what Cal Poly is, what San Luis Obispo is — is our marching band. So we get to be the image that they have of our community," he said.
This year's Pride of the Pacific is made up of students from throughout Cal Poly's six colleges, from music majors to engineers, and features a Tinker Bell-esque twirler, who is followed by the color guard lofting colorful flags, and the 208-member band.
The procession along the mile-long route includes 130 floats, lion and dragon dance teams, marching bands, and cultural performance groups, as well as the show-stopping 288-foot “Golden Dragon.” The event attracts 100,000 spectators and a television audience estimated at 3 million throughout the U.S., Canada, and Asia.
