On Thursday, October 20, the VHHS Musical Arts Departments (choir and band) received an unforgettable invitation.
As rumors were circulating about the "big" trip that was going to take place in 2023, students finally had their questions answered. Visitors from London, including the main director in charge of the Rome New Year's Festival, came to the high school to invite the groups.
As students filed in, the band welcomed the visitors with "America The Beautiful," and Just Singin' performed the national anthem, which easily impressed the crowd. Following this introduction, the director began to speak. As he introduced himself and his colleagues, attention was immediately brought to his British accent. The guests had come to visit from Europe to invite different high schools to perform in the Rome New Year's Festival in 2023. During his speech, he discussed his involvement in the parade, along with what the parade and trip would look like for future attendees.
He introduced himself as the director of the New Year's Day Festival in London and explained his involvement in the Rome Festival as well. As his festival in London had been gaining significant traction, he was generally well known among the European countries. One day, he received a call from a Roman higher-up asking for his assistance in making a festival in Rome equally as grand. When he decided to take on the challenge, he had no idea how big it was going to get.
The Rome New Year's Festival, as described at the ceremony, is a day-long extravaganza. The event begins around 3pm on New Year's Eve, after the Italians have had time to eat lunch, and it lasts until well after the ball drops. The festival venue is miles long and packed on every side by eager viewers who come from near and far. Better yet, the people in the festival, as shown in an introductory video, come from all parts of the world to perform.
For VHHS students, the director described, it will be a week for them to be immersed in a new culture, with new food, new customs, and new people, and it will be a life-changing experience.
To conclude, Mr. Horton and Mr. Stricklin were called to the stage and extended a formal invite (In both Italian and English) for them and their groups to attend this event in the winter of 2023, which was proudly accepted.
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