Unalaska band ices a blistering performance at Disneyland

MEGAN LANE

May 09, 2008 at 11:25AM AKST

For The Dutch Harbor Fisherman

Twenty-eight Unalaska City High School band students and six chaperones set out last month for a combined trip of Disneyland Magic Music Days and the Region II Music Festival.

The airport was full of loud talking, laughter and hugs for family members and promises of Disney souvenirs for friends. The excitement was palpable.

Then we all stepped off the plane into Orange County in California. Sweaters were shed with jubilation and sunglasses unpacked for the first time in many months.

A few van trips later and we were at our hotel in Anaheim, a good 15-minute walk from Disneyland. We spent the first day ignoring the construction noise and testing of the fire alarms at the hotel and headed to the swimming pool.

Finally, after a good night’s sleep, we awoke the next morning for our first day in the land of tomorrow, the past and fantasy. The group walked to the entrance to the park, flip-flops smacking the pavement and the smell of sunblock rising off everyone. We waited outside of Disney’s California Adventure for the gates to open and proceeded to the Tower of Terror for our band’s first Disney ride.

After our first ride as a group, the band students were given a meeting time, and we split up into groups. The band members who had gone two years previously tried to convince the freshmen and sophomores that rides like California Screamin’ and Space Mountain really weren’t half as terrifying as the Tower of Terror.

One of the best things about band trips, and especially Disney band trips, is that you are almost forced to split into groups of people you might not normally hang out with. Friendships and blisters were formed our first day, and the consequences of both can still be seen a week after Disney.

The second day, we woke up a little later, as we were going to Backstage Disney as soon as we arrived. A quick scan of everyone’s footwear soon revealed that only a few diehards were still wearing flip-flops, and we proceeded to make our more sensible approach to Disneyland on our second try.

The students had loaded up a van with their concert black-and-white dress clothes, instruments and music, and one of the chaperones, Lynn Norstadt, drove the van to Backstage Disney so our concert things would be ready when we needed them.

The students and chaperones all met at the entrance to Toon Town, and we were soon greeted by a Disney staffer named Melissa. She was wearing black and white as well and telling us she would probably have to change into a different black-and-white shirt later, once the concert was over.

She led us to the entrance to Backstage Disney, not far from Minnie’s house. A small sign by the entrance stated "staff only."

We were asked not to take any pictures when we reached Backstage Disney, and she explained Disney spent all of its money making the park a beautiful and magical place, and we were soon able to see that Backstage Disney did not have the same air as the park at all.

We saw the place where they launched the fireworks for the show at night, and we saw the extra cars for the rides, and the best thing so far '97 free water.

Melissa promptly told us she did not want us to dehydrate on our way to the concert and wanted us to drink as much water as possible. We complied with her wishes so quickly and in such large quantities, they were soon obliged to run for more water and fill the water containers with ice instead, which we all munched on while we waited for the water.

The students were directed to change into our dress clothes and come back out to grab our instruments. And thus, with a cup of ice in one hand and our instrument in the other, we tuned in the blazing heat of the California sun rising off the blacktop of Backstage Disney.

If we had thought we had felt uncomfortable before with the blisters on our feet from our flip-flops, it was nothing to cramming our feet into tight, shiny closed-toe dress shoes and feeling new sore spots coming through.

Tuned and ready to go, we walked through Backstage Disney to the back of the Carnation Garden Plaza, the place where we would play our concert. The heat in Backstage Disney could not even compare to the heat on the stage beneath the canopy.

The crowd was bigger than the last time we had come to Disney, or at least there were more people there to watch other than chaperones and a few parents who had been in California at the time.

We played our four songs, "Invicta," "Pocahontas," "Rhythm of the Winds" and "Cartoon Symphony" better than ever before. The students stood up to the applause hoping the audience wouldn’t see the backs of our shirts sticking to us like glue.

The walk back to our changing area was perhaps even more uncomfortable because of the extra sweat we had accrued in the plaza.

However, we changed, went back to the park in search of a long water ride and came back to Melissa in a few hours for our "tuning session." Melissa taught us things about music we might have already known, and some things we didn’t know.

As she was hired as a vocalist in Disneyland first, we even convinced her to sing a song for us before we left.

The park awaited. We spent two more days in Disneyland, then packed up and headed back to the airport, peeling skin and all.

Once the band and its chaperones reached Anchorage, we all immediately went to the Extended Stay in downtown Anchorage. The night there was somewhat frustrating for the people participating in Solo and Ensemble because we could not practice our instruments in a hotel room as we were politely reminded by our neighbors via the front desk calling our chaperones.

The 5-1/2 hour van ride to Nenana went very well. Almost everyone was in a van they had chosen for themselves. A lot of the way was spent sleeping.

Once in Nenana, we all hopped out of the van to see that snow did indeed still exist in some parts of the world. We unpacked our things into our rooms '97 Mrs. Haken’s kindergarten class for the girls, and a classroom in the high school end for the boys. Later, we all drove in our vans to the Student Living Center and had dinner.

We were then split up into groups, those in Honor Band and those in Mass Band. One from our group was able to participate in Mass Choir. The eight-hour days of playing our instruments and only breaking to eat and sleep were grueling, but everyone from the Unalaska band was up for the challenge.

We played for our judges the last day of the festival and were given second place in our region, a title made even more special because our band did not rank last year.

The Solo and Ensemble people performed for the adjudicators the night before, and one judge said, "I certainly know now where students need to go if they want to be serious musicians."

Kaia Machalek, Erin Dickson and myself received Superior ratings for the solos, and all three of us are going to State in May.

A final concert for the town of Nenana and anyone else who might wish to watch their children perform took up much of the last night. Some students who had received superior ratings were given command performance and performed at the last concert.

At four in the morning we all woke up and loaded back into the vans. The trip to Nenana had been much louder than this one, which was spent sleeping the whole way to Anchorage.

Band trips are always fun to go on, but this one, my last one, will always be my favorite.

Megan Lane is a 12th-grade student at Unalaska City School, where she plays flute in school band.