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The Costa Rican flavor and essence will be present in the London New Year’s parade in 2025. Recently, the La Fortuna Community Band of San Carlos obtained the document that accredits it as a guest to participate in the famous English festival.
According to Erick Quesada, director of the ensemble, this is a reward for the efforts made by the group, which has now been in existence for 13 years.
“It was very emotional, there were tears and a lot of emotions because for us it is a very important achievement. It is a dream that, in addition, opens the minds of the boys, because this way they can realize that dreams can come true, that trying hard brings its reward and that many times we have to prioritize some things or sacrifice ourselves in order to fulfill them. dreams. It was going one step further in the band’s goals,” says Quesada.
Currently, the band has a total of 170 members, however, the number could increase in the coming months, according to the group’s director.
According to Quesada, when the auditions for the English festival opened, they decided to participate, because they knew they had the ability to do a job up to par and convince the organization. Months later, specifically in April, they received the news they had been waiting for.
“For a while, with the band’s board members, we decided to keep the news a secret; Afterwards we broke the news to the members. Finally, we began to contact various sponsors, the La Fortuna Development Association to see how much openness and support there was and thank God we have found important support… We still need it, but from that support, it was “We made the decision to make the news public,” adds the director.
READ MORE: Orotina Band gives up participating in the New Year’s parade in London 2021: “Our dream fell apart”
According to Quesada, “expectations are quite high,” since the Tico ensemble is the only one from Latin America invited to participate in next year’s parade. In fact, previously, “the only band that had come from Latin America was one from Panama, but it was around 2013; That is, for 10 years there has been no other Latin American representation.”
It should be noted that the Orotina Communal Band had been invited to participate in this same parade in 2021, however, the pandemic prevented the ensemble from traveling to London.
This would be the fifth trip that the La Fortuna Communal Band has made outside of Costa Rica, as they previously had the opportunity to perform in Panama, Guatemala and the United States. In addition, they will soon perform in Colombia, as part of that country’s National Band Championship.
“We know that it is not going to be easy, but yes, we are with the mentality that Costa Rica goes to London and is well represented; because we could say: ‘let’s go with a 50-member band’, but it’s not the same. The London delegation came to the country to give us the accreditation and they left very happy with the group, their expectations are very high,” says Quesada.
From now on, the band will focus on finding the resources to pay for the trip, since they must pay for tickets, lodging, food, transportation, clothing and everything the members need.
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2023-09-26 11:21:14
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