You might suppose that the Columbus East Olympian Spirit marching band would be performing “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” when they march through Cork, Ireland’s downtown area for the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
But Irish tunes are the last thing parade viewers in Ireland want to hear on St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday, said East’s Director of Bands David Rodgers.
Instead, the band will be performing “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang, a 1980 rhythm and blues party tune specifically selected to get the spectators dancing on the sidewalks, Rodgers said.
“They (parade-goers) just want to hear something fun and peppy,” he said.
He recalled that when the band performed in Dublin, Ireland, in 2015, the Olympian Spirit band members were welcomed as celebrities from America with little kids high-fiving the directors along the parade route. There was no Irish music performance on that trip either, with the band performing a funk arrangement of “All of the Lights” by Kanye West then.
Rodgers is also planning on taking an armful of green and gold shamrock beads to hand out along the 1-mile or so parade route in Cork, about the same distance the band usually marches in Columbus’ Festival of Lights parade.
Forty band members are making the trip to Cork, leaving today on an overnight nonstop flight from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport to Ireland, Rodgers said. There are 62 people from Columbus on the trip, when you count in chaperones, directors and parents.
The band has had an ongoing open invitation from Ireland to return and perform anytime, Rodgers said, something that led to this trip on Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.’s spring break.
Band members will wear their regular marching band uniforms, and are packing rain ponchos as a precaution. Rather than wearing traditional band headgear, the band has hats made saying “Columbus East Band Ireland Tour” to wear while marching.
After the parade performance, band members will embark on a tour of southern Ireland, with one of their first stops being the Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney stone. Legend has it that if you kiss the stone, you gain the gift of eloquence.
The East band will also participate in a medieval banquet at another Ireland castle.
The trip has been in the planning stages for two years, Rodgers said.
“It’s fun to watch the kids explore Ireland,” the band director said. “They are a really inviting people and it’s really safe. The kids have a lot of fun.”
And although the band won’t be singing the Kool and the Gang lyrics when performing, one verse seems particularly appropriate for the Olympians visit to Cork.
As Kool and the Gang put it:
”There’s a party goin’ on right here,
A celebration to last throughout the years.
So bring your good times, and your laughter too.
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Columbus North’s marching band is also heading across the pond this weekend, traveling to Italy today.
The Sound of North Marching Band is taking 80 students and 22 chaperones to Venice, Florence and Rome in Italy, where they will perform and also visit historical sites and learn about the country.
The band is expected to return March 22.
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