Staff Reports

BOONE – About 60 members of the Appalachian State University Marching Mountaineers will travel to London for the 29th London New Year's Day Parade.

This is the second time the band has been invited to perform in what is dubbed "The World's Largest New Year's Day Parade," according to a news release from the college.

The first was in 2006 under the direction of former associate director of bands Dr. Scott Tobias. The band is currently directed by Dr. Kevin Richardson from the Hayes School of Music.

According to event organizers, the parade starts around noon and passes along the thoroughfares of Piccadilly, Regent Street and Whitehall, passing Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square on its two-mile path through the center of the historic City of Westminster, ending at Parliament Street in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

Appalachian's marching band is one of 21 high school and university bands invited to perform in the 2015 parade. The event typically attracts more than 500,000 spectators and millions of viewers via the parade's worldwide television broadcast.

While in London, the students will visit sites such as the Tower of London, Greenwich Village, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Oxford University, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.

This will be the marching band's third international performance in recent years. In 2011, the band was one of only two U.S. bands invited to perform in the Cabalgata de Reyes Parade in Madrid, Spain.