Rutgers Marching Band performs at Macy's Thanksgiving Parade for 1st time

On November 23, the Rutgers Marching Scarlet Knights performed for the first time at the 97th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. 

More than 25 million viewers watched the parade's two-mile run from West 77th Street & Central Park West to Macy's Herald Square with floats, balloons, performers and marching bands, according to NBC News.

Associate Director of Bands Julia Baumanis said the Rutgers Marching Band applied to perform in the parade in 2021 with an exhibition video and competed with more than 100 bands for a spot.

"Over 100 bands apply, only 10 get selected, and only 3 of those 10 bands can be college bands, with one being an HBCU — Historically Black College/University," she said. "So, our chances of getting selected were 2 out of 100."

Todd Nichols, the director of University Bands and the Marching Scarlet Knights, said that the application process was rigorous and required a committee of TV and music professionals to examine the band's recent performances.

Baumanis said that the band spent two weeks preparing for the parade by organizing in straight lines, playing songs without a conductor and keeping up with the tempo of everyone's instruments. The Knights used a parking lot for formations so everyone could learn to move accordingly within the limited space at the parade.

"We taped off the parameters of the area and worked on setting up in a formation ... where everyone fit. It's very tight but possible," she said.

The Marching Scarlet Knights is a non-audition band that any Rutgers student can join, Baumanis said. Any students in the current performance season were automatically placed into the parade lineup. Additionally, several Rutgers graduates who had been a part of the band in 2022 — when it was accepted to participate in this year's parade — were invited back to perform.

Ava Trum, a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences sophomore, said she joined the band after transferring to Rutgers this year. She said she remembers how the parade was surreal and how the Band Directors Marching Band's rendition of "Amazing Grace" inspired her that day.

"I was walking up the streets of New York at (3 a.m.) with my best friends, hearing that song, about to perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade," she said. "That was my favorite moment from the day."

Lauren Nagy, a School of the Arts and Sciences first-year, said that this is her first year playing in the Marching Scarlet Knights. She said this parade was her first time playing on a large scale, and though the process was tiring, she enjoyed her time there.

"The whole trip felt like a fever dream," she said. "We were all so excited, so in lieu of sleep, everyone was running on constant adrenaline."

Baumanis said that one memory that she had from the parade was noticing the faces of Marching Scarlet Knights staff, many of whom had once been part of the band, in the crowd. 

"They are proud to come back and help continue our forward trajectory," she said. "You want every alumni member of an organization to feel like this about what you are doing with the band."