Brownsburg Marching Band readies for Rose Bowl appearance PASADENA, Calif. (WISH) — Indiana history will be made out in Southern California at the Rose Bowl and not just for the Hoosiers football team. Brownsburg High School Marching Band was the only Indiana high school invited to participate in the famous Rose Parade and other Rose Bowl activities. “This is definitely a huge, huge deal. I’m so, so excited,” junior drum major Kierstyn Earnhart said. The Sound of Brownsburg will ring out all over Pasadena this week as the Bulldogs’ band marches into town. “This is kind of like the Super Bowl of parades,” Brownsburg’s Director of Bands Chris Kaflik said. “We wanted to make sure we were going to go somewhere following the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – I mean, it’s hard to follow that – but the Rose Bowl can follow that.” Brownsburg submitted an application to participate back in 2023. Once selected, it’s been years of anticipation for the students. “I was overly excited to go because knowing that I went before as a seventh grader, I was just holding the banner for the Rose Parade for the honor band and knowing that I can go with my band this time, it will be such a great experience,” Earnhart said. “I think it’s like a fun opportunity like with the whole band to represent the state because nobody from Indiana’s going. It’s like a proud moment,” freshman mellophone player Sejal Kaur said. The trip means even more now that IU will play the Rose Bowl game for the first time in nearly 60 years. “I think the significance of this Rose Bowl specifically to the state of Indiana is obviously way heightened now,” Kaflik said. “You’re going to have a lot more people from Indiana watching the actual parade now so the state that we represent, we know we’ve got eyes on us. So we feel way more empowered, and we feel a lot more pride in representing the state of Indiana.” Central Indiana’s weather certainly hasn’t been like Pasadena’s recently. It’s a good thing the Sound of Brownsburg has a new multi-million dollar fieldhouse to practice twice a week in to get ready for the big day. It takes 44 laps around that massive indoor track to mimic the five-and-a-half mile parade route. “I don’t know if they totally know what they got into,” Kaflik said. “As we’re building up to this, we’re showing them videos of other bands and floats and everything they’ll see in the parade, and you can see the excitement building.” “This whole activity lets you be a part of something so much bigger than one individual, and that’s just a special feeling,” freshman Owen Smith said. One that could be once-in-a-lifetime. ...read more read less