The Lehighton Area High School Indian Pride Band is set to play Disney’s Magic Kingdom Festival of Fantasy parade on Wednesday afternoon.

Though Bryan Buffington, band director, is no stranger to performances down Main Street, the excitement of seeing a new crop of students get the Disney music experience never gets old.

“Disney does such a great job of making the kids feel incredibly special about their performance and to see them perform in a top-tier entertainment venue like that is wonderful,” Buffington said. “It’s so rewarding for them and this is our first trip since COVID-19 shut things down so getting back to the travel is great.”

Lehighton leaves for Florida on Sunday and students will get a day in each Walt Disney World park and a second day at the Magic Kingdom when they perform at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

“The majority of these kids haven’t had a trip like this in their life and we really value these chances to get outside of Lehighton and further experience the world just a little bit every year,” Buffington said.

The band made an audition tape to send to Disney last year and was accepted to play at the park. After the fall marching band season, preparations immediately began for the Magic Kingdom.

“We’ve been practicing every week getting back to those marching skills and getting the music perfected,” Buffington said. “It’s been a few months now of pretty intense rehearsals specifically for this show.”