By Gwen Filosa
The Key West High School Marching Conchs represented the Keys in London’s New Year’s Day Parade on Jan. 1, 2024, an event that drew 800,000 people lining the streets with millions watching from home.
“Very few bands in the U.S. get invited and this is a unique opportunity that the band has been blessed with,” Em Pucuhuaranga, 16, a KWHS junior and one of the band’s drum majors, told Keys Weekly before the trip.
The band performed classic pop songs for a worldwide audience during London’s New Year’s Day Parade and Festival, during which the average temperature was 54 degrees.
“If those Key West people from the southern tip of the United States of America aren’t feeling cold today, we know it must be pretty good,” one of the parade’s hosts said, as the Marching Conchs began playing live Jan. 1. “The crowd is keeping them warm.”
Their parade setlist was: The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic,” the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” Elton John’s “Your Song,” and Blondie’s “One Way or Another.”
Here’s how to watch the band’s New Year’s Day performance in London.
- London’s New Year’s Day Parade’s YouTube channel. At about 30 minutes into the video, the band performs Blondie’s “One Way Or Another,” but they also appear several times before that time stamp.
- The Key West High School Band’s Facebook and Instagram pages have photos and videos of the London trip.
Two students traveled with the band as their personal videographers. A band supporter offered to pay their way so they can cover the entire London trip and compile footage for a forthcoming documentary.
An invitation to the London parade itself is an accomplishment, the band’s director Gary Hernandez told Keys Weekly in November.
“Bands are only chosen through a vetting process that includes recommendations by band directors and adjudicators who themselves have had their own groups participate in the parade,” Hernandez said.
After receiving an invitation from parade organizers in April, the band went to work fundraising. The Monroe County School District doesn’t have money in the budget for this type of travel, so the band and their families hit the streets holding fundraisers.
On Nov. 1 the band announced they’d made their deadline, raising nearly $400,000 to make the overseas trip for the legendary holiday event.
To collect the money needed to travel to the 2024 London parade, though, Pucuhuaranga and her bandmates didn’t just sit around posting on Facebook expecting donations to roll in.
Instead, the teens and their families got busy and stayed that way for the last six months. They held car washes and yard sales, ran concession stands at football games and performed in the streets outside businesses.
Over the New Year’s holiday weekend, the band had a whirlwind trip in London.
On Dec. 30, the band posted videos and photos on their social media pages showing students sightseeing and performing in London. In one video, the band plays Key West’s alma mater and fight song.
They worked constantly to raise as much as they could themselves.
Pucuhuaranga said she never lost faith that they’d make it to London.
“No, because of this lovely community,” she said. “I knew they would help us pull it together. They all love the band.”
As tradition holds, the tight-knit island community stepped up to help make the performance of a lifetime dream come true for about 75 students in the marching band.
On Oct. 26, as the final payment deadline for the trip loomed, the Isla Bella Beach Resort in Marathon announced it had made a $20,000 donation to push the band to the finish line.
When a resort representative presented the check to band members at the high school, several parents were brought to tears by the final donation that granted their children “this incredible opportunity,” Isla Bella publicist Julia Kaufmann said.
Pucuhuaranga found out the trip was a done deal on Oct. 29. They were performing at Bayview Park for Fantasy Fest’s Children’s Day event when word arrived.
“The Jazz Band was fundraising, of course, for London and Hernandez announced that we had made our goal,” she said. “The whole band gasped.”
