 "Photo: Courtesy of Heidi Sarver")
 "Photo: Courtesy of Heidi Sarver")
 "Photo: Courtesy of Heidi Sarver")
Airports are notoriously difficult to navigate during the holidays, even for those traveling alone or in small groups. Try traveling with 502 people.
On Dec. 26, that’s exactly what Heidi Sarver, director of the university marching band, and George Parks, her counterpart at the University of Massachusetts, did.
For years, Sarver has contemplated taking the university’s marching band abroad, but she doubted she would be able to generate enough interest this year because of the economy.
“During [my site inspection] trip it was decided that the UDMB would combine with the University of Massachusetts Marching Band in the hopes that between the two groups we would be able to get 100 or so people to go in order to have a viable performing ensemble,” Sarver stated in an e-mail message.
In total, 276 of the people who took five flights from four different airports to make the 10-day trip were university undergrads. University of Massachusetts students accounted for another 114, and the rest were the students’ family and friends.
Combining the bands also made sense because of their relationship, said junior Andrew Tremblay, a drum major in the university’s marching band. For the past two years, the bands have given combined performances when the Delaware football team has played UMass.
“They’re literally two of the best marching bands on the East Coast, and when they combine forces, it’s a really, really cool thing,” Tremblay said.
The bands performed twice during the trip — once in Dublin, in the eastern part of Ireland, and once in Galway, which is on the western side of the country. Their performance in Dublin was part of the city’s first official New Year’s Day parade, Sarver says.
“Previously that event was very impromptu, but in this case the Dublin City Council joined with Dublin Tourism and promoted it as a new event they wish to have every year,” Sarver said. “To say we were part of the inaugural performance on New Year's Day in Dublin, Ireland is something we are all most honored by.”
Senior Samantha Bisaro, a clarinet player, said she was surprised by the attendees’ reaction to the marching band. Many marched along with the band or repeatedly ran ahead of the band, watch them march past, then ran farther along the parade route to watch them approach again.
“I don’t think they have very many marching bands in Ireland,” Bisaro said. “It was really cool to see how much enthusiasm they had for us. It was really cool to watch groups of people watch us as we marched by.”
For the Galway performance, weather conditions were less than ideal, but Sarver says that didn’t hamper crowd turnout.
“People came out of shops and pubs and filled Eyre Square during the standstill performance,” she said. “While a sunny day would have meant the square would be filled with people, no one was complaining when the crowd was six deep from one end of the performance area to the other. The special part of that performance was that the Lord Mayor of Galway stayed for the entire performance — in the rain and snow!
When they weren’t performing, the students and their families and friends spent their time sightseeing.
“Galway was our western hub and while there we traveled to the Cliffs of Moher, Kylemoor Abbey and experienced the rocky landscape of the entire area called the Burren,” Sarver said. “Dublin was our eastern hub and while there we traveled all around the city seeing Trinity College and the Book of Kells, Dublin Castle, and the Guinness Storehouse.”
Tremblay says he was particularly interested in learning about the country’s historic buildings.
“Especially in western Ireland, there were stone walls everywhere,” Tremblay said. “These were walls that we were told were constructed hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years ago and were destroyed to the point that farmers can’t move them because they’re protected.”
Despite the constant e-mails and phone calls required to plan such a large trip, Sarver said it’s something she’d like to do again.
“While another trip is not planned for the immediate future, we are discussing the prospects of making this something the marching band will pursue again in about four years or so,” she said. “Destination: unknown at this time. There are so very many choices and so many festivals — it will be difficult to choose.”
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