The PVHS Band was honored to be invited to the Holiday bowl. The PVHS band got their opportunity to go to the Holiday Bowl from a company named WorldStrides. Worldstrides is a company that provides educational travel and experiences to more than 530,000 students a year. ” I was very happy to be given the opportunity to go to the holiday bowl, especially in my senior year because the band only goes once every four years,” said Mark Barth.

Given this opportunity, the Band went straight to work. Every Tuesday and Thursday after school from 2:30 to 4, they practiced songs like” Highway to the Danger Zone” from Top Gun and “I will survive”. As the event approached they started putting in extra time, even practicing marching on the weekend for the parade before the Holiday Bowl. 

It was finally the day of the trip. They left on Monday morning at 11 am, arriving in San Diego at 3 pm. After they settled in they went to a well-known spot for the rest of the day called “Belmont Park”, which is an amusement park located on the beachfront of Surfrider Square in the Mission Bay area of San Diego. On the second day of the trip, they woke up early to get ready for rehearsals at Coronado High School at 10 am. They then departed from Coronado high school at 2 pm to go to Fashion Island, an outdoor regional shopping mall, where they spent most of their time for the rest of the day. The third day was the most important, it was the big day, the day they’d been preparing for the last month. They woke up at 6 am and then went to the marshaling area, the location where the parade was happening. The Holiday Bowl started at 10 am ending at around 11 am. After the parade, the band went to Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres and hosted the Holiday Bowl game.

The Holiday Bowl game kick off was at 5 pm as the Oregon Ducks took on the North Carolina Tar Heels. Matthew Longoria, one of the PVHS band’s flute players said “watching the holiday bowl was amazing, seeing the college band perform both on field and in the stands makes me want to do college band“.  Mark Barth said “ performing in front of the crowd was amazing and nerve-racking at the same time because it was finally all of the practice coming into reality on the big day”. At the end of the day the Oregon Ducks took on the North Carolina Tar Heels where the Oregon ducks came out victorious 28 – 27 in comeback fashion.   

The day after the big event the PVHS band celebrated their spectacular performance at Sea World with dinner and an after-party. They danced and raved with other bands that attended and were even rewarded Best Spirit out of all the bands and dance teams. Jose Ramirez, also known as Mando said “It felt like being on another planet with all the lights being shined on you”.