Alumni, faculty and members of the Cyclone Football Varsity and Alumni Band agree that their trip to perform in the London New Year’s parade will be an experience to remember.

“The streets will be lined six deep with people so it will be hectic, but I think it will also be a great rush,” senior drum major Nick Mostek says.

A mixed group of 190 students and alumni will spend six days in England’s capital beginning Dec. 29. Their flight is scheduled to leave London on Jan. 4, 2000.

Youth Music for the World, based in Richmond, Va., is an organization that finds American performing groups for the London and Paris New Year’s parades and arranged the band’s visit.

Marty Province, associate director of bands, worked with the organization in 1994 when he took the marching band from Wake Forest University to the parade.

“I contacted the group and told them I was at a new school, and we were interested in going,” Province said.

Of the 150 performers from around the world, Iowa State is the only four-year Division I college band going.

“Since [Youth Music for the World] had worked with me in the past, they trusted me to bring a good group,” Province says.

Besides the standard “ISU Fights,” Province says the band will feature twirler Christina Devine and try to incorporate some cheers to accompany the drumline cadence.

Some of the activities include a coach tour of London, the “Music for the Millennium” concert, a Windsor tour, a Stonehenge and Roman Bath tour and two days of sightseeing and shopping.

The opportunity to travel abroad for the millennium attracted 30 alumni and some of their spouses.

Among those alumni is Lorna Wilhelm-Livingston, who graduated from ISU in 1948 and now resides near Minneapolis.

Wilhelm-Livingston was one of the first women to play in the marching band, which was limited to males at the time.

“It was during the war, so they let women get involved in [marching band],” Wilhelm-Livingston says.

Since the alumni band was formed in 1980, the glockenspiel player comes back every year to play for homecoming and Veishea.

“[Marching] is the biggest thrill in the world; it makes you feel 18 all over again,” she says.

To prepare Wilhelm-Livingston for the trip, directors mailed her a copy of John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

“I have to memorize all of the music because I have no place to carry it,” Wilhelm-Livingston says.

During the trip, Wilhelm-Livingston says that she hopes to spend some time with her daughter, who resides in London, and see the Tower of London.

Second-year drum major Grif Sims hopes to take full advantage of the festivities on tour as well.

“It’s my understanding we won’t have a rehearsal there,” Sims says, “But because of our good preparation it will go off without a hitch; I’ll just kick it into cruise control.”

No one appears to be worried about the Y2K element during their cross-Atlantic voyage and all seem to be prepared.

“Mr. P [Province] said the group worked it out so if anything Y2K-related happens, they’ll take care of us,” Sims says.

Sims remembers that during one of the preliminary logistics meetings a trumpet player asked if the Youth Music representative in London has any shelters if Armageddon comes.

Wilhelm-Livingston jokes, “If Y2K messes up, I might need my canoe to get back.”