The marching band at Heritage High School in Rogers is heading to New Orleans to perform in a Mardi Gras flagship parade.
"We're taking the band to Mardi Gras, to the Krewe of Endymion parade," says band director Doug Blevins. "I'm just glad to be able to reward the kids for their hard work, to play in front of a million or two people, cause it's going to be really cool."
"It's just something that I'm pretty sure is going to be a great impact on our lives," says tuba player Crystal Albarran. "I'm kinda nervous, but I'm pretty sure it will be a great experience and I'm just really looking forward to it."
"I'm pretty pumped about this trip," says drum major Daniel Remoy. "Going down to New Orleans and being with 140 of my closest friends with band, it's going to be really exciting."
The trip will be exciting, but also exhausting. On Saturday, the band will march six miles, performing their routine for five straight hours.
"We've been doing conditioning every week couple times a week and lots of playing, just to get the kids physically ready to play," Blevins says. "They say the parade will be lined with about 30 people deep for most of the 6 miles."
Blevins says the trip is proof, playing music can take you places.
"There's a lot of things we can do with music and when you get good at doing what you do there's a lot of opportunities out there," he says. "If you work hard, sometimes you can go places."
Click here to watch this report by Kyle Leyenberger at KNWA-TV, Fayetteville.
