If you tune in to the 2025 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, you’ll see one of our own Arizona marching bands take center stage. This year, Northern Arizona University’s marching band was one of very few selected for the honor of performing in the big parade.
They’ll be bringing about 250 students to New York City for the performance and are practicing diligently for their big moment on screen when they go through Herald Square.
NAU Director of Bands Stephen Meyer and drum major Samantha Fagan joined The Show. They talked about the students’ reaction when they first learned they were heading to the iconic parade.
Full conversation
SAMANTHA FAGAN: It was so exciting. We were actually performing our halftime performance, and our director had us just arc up on the field. We didn’t know what was going to happen, but we knew there was a surprise. And then the president of our university actually came onto the field and gave a big speech about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
And all of us just, oh my gosh. We just jumped with excitement. I was just, like, looking at my parents in the audience, like, “Oh, my gosh!” Waving, jumping up and down, hugging my friends around me. It was crazy.
LAUREN GIGLER: What was it like for you, Stephen, as the guy in charge?
STEPHEN MEYER: It was amazing to see their reaction. That happened at the end of August, and we had known since the end of the previous April that we were invited to perform. So we had been hanging on to this secret for months from the students, trying to make sure that we gave it the most attention that we could in the best space possible.
GILGER: Oh, that’s so great.
MEYER: Those faces and that reaction were something that we will never forget.
GILGER: Yeah. OK, so I want to give folks a sense of just how big a deal this is, how hard it is for a marching band to get to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. How many are selected each year?
MEYER: Between six and seven high school and college marching bands out of maybe over 100 that apply. So it is a huge deal and is a testament to the work that we have done at NAU and tried to build the marching band program over the last eight years since I’ve been here.
GILGER: Yeah. And it sounds like it has grown quite a bit in that time as well. Tell us a little bit about how you’ve been preparing for this. This is a big stage. It is a big deal to be here. It costs a lot of money to get everyone there. I’m sure you’ve been practicing a lot.
FAGAN: Yeah, we have to practice. We practice Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We’ve been doing lots of parade practice over and over and over, getting every detail just to make it as perfect as possible.
GILGER: You have to be incredibly detail-oriented for this, right? Like, to get that many people in formation — and then it’ll be different, right? When you’re on a route in New York City with cameras and people and maybe snow, right?
FAGAN: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We’ve been practicing our Macy’s performance on a football field, but Macy’s — there’s no football field. So that’s something that’s super different. And we have to be super attentive to every detail and making sure everyone knows all of their counts, all of the choreography, just to make sure that no one gets hurt or anything.
GILGER: What instrument do you play, Samantha?
FAGAN: I play the saxophone.
GILGER: But do you play in this or — as a drum major, you’re not playing, right?
FAGAN: No, I don’t. I’m one of the banner holders. The three of us just hold the banner throughout the streets.
GILGER: And keep everybody in line, right?
FAGAN: Oh, of course. Yeah.
GILGER: Let me ask you about what you’ll be playing. I mean, like, you get to pick, I’m sure, a certain number of songs, but kind of one major moment when you’re going to be on screen. How did you come up with that? What are you going to play?
MEYER: So for our Herald Square performance, one of the things that you want to do is highlight what is great about our area. And certainly the first thing that came to mind was Route 66. And we found the “get your kicks on Route 66,” that song — there’s a version by John Mayer that was used in the movie “Cars.”
So we selected that last April or something, and afterwards found out that this year is the centennial anniversary of Route 66. So it was this harmonious moment where we could celebrate a huge milestone for Flagstaff in this national spotlight.
GILGER: Yeah. What amazing synchronicity there. That’s amazing.
MEYER: Yes, exactly, exactly. And then on the parade route, we’re going to play “Pink Pony Club.” We’re also going to play “Ghostbusters” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” We wanted to pick music that was entertaining to the crowd.
GILGER: Yeah.
MEYER: I was fortunate to do this parade back in 2009 when I taught in a high school in Georgia, and we played “Ghostbusters” in front of the New York Public Library. I will never forget just everyone along the parade route chanting “Ghostbusters.”
GILGER: That’s so fun.
MEYER: And how cool that was. So, we thought with “Pink Pony Club,” folks could sing along; “Bad Romance,” the same way. Some way to get the crowd engaged in the parade using our music.
GILGER: Yeah. What’s your favorite, Samantha? What do you want to play most? What are you looking forward to here?
FAGAN: Oh, definitely “Ghostbusters.” I mean, I never even thought that I could even, we could even do that. Like, it doesn’t even need to be Halloween. It’s just so iconic.
GILGER: That’ll be really fun. I wonder, do you think that, you know, the folks at home who watch this parade every year and know that marching bands are part of it but don’t really know much beyond that, do you think they have any inkling of just how much goes into this for these bands like yours?
MEYER: I really don’t.
FAGAN: I don’t.
MEYER: There is an enormous amount behind the scenes to get the students to New York City with their instruments, and the logistics and coordination involved. A lot of people also don’t know the massive amount of fundraising that our students and our community has done. We’ve been able to raise about $250,000, which has all gone to our students to help offset the cost of the trip.
GILGER: Oh, that’s great. OK, so final question for you both then. I mean, we talked a little bit about what you’re looking forward to here, but I wonder how you think you’ll look back on this, right? Like, you’ve gotten to do this once before, it sounds like, Stephen, with another band. And Samantha, this, I’m assuming, will be your first time performing in this parade. How do you think you’ll remember this?
FAGAN: I mean, it’s not very common to say that you were able to be a part of the Macy’s parade. You just kind of watch it on the TV. You’re like, “Dang, that’s cool.” But you never really actually think that you could actually be on camera in front of all those people and just representing your school.
So I’m definitely going to look back on this with just so much excitement and just like, “Wow, like, it actually happened.”
GILGER: What will you all do for Thanksgiving dinner after you’re done playing?
MEYER: After the parade, we are going on a riverboat cruise around the Hudson River, and that’s where we will have Thanksgiving dinner and just a wonderful celebration of all the hard work and their performance that day.
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