The Lynchburg-Clay High School and the Whiteoak High School marching bands were recently selected to participate in the famous Findlay Market Opening Day Parade in Cincinnati celebrating the opening home game for the Cincinnati Reds March 30, 2023.

“They are extremely excited,” said Lynchburg-Clay High School Band Director Paul McCalla about the band’s reaction to the news. “As soon as I made the announcement, the room erupted and they were excited to play for such a large audience downtown.”

About 45 band members from Lynchburg-Clay High School will participate in the parade.

“I don’t have song titles yet, but the color guard will be with us, and we’ll be playing some music from the drum line and wind music with the full band,” said McCalla.

Calls seeking comment from Whiteoak High School were not immediately returned.

The Lynchburg-Clay Marching Mustangs earned the highest possible rating at the 2022 Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) State Marching Band Finals in November at Alexander Stadium in Piqua. It marked back-to-back state finals in consecutive school years for the Marching Mustangs, with the OMEA giving them a Superior (I) rating for this year’s performance, “Under the Moonlight.”

The Marching Mustangs qualified for the state finals by receiving two superior ratings in a row at events at Shawnee and Tecumseh high schools in October. McCalla said that, “The band has placed in the top two at every contest (last) year and at Shawnee earned the highest score in school history.”

The Findlay Market Opening Day Parade has taken place since 1852, and the well-known and widely attended event marks an official “city holiday” in Cincinnati with locals taking the day off to cheer on the Reds. An estimated 130,000 fans were in attendance for the 2022 Findlay Market Opening Day Parade last April.

Season openers were not celebrated in the early days of baseball, but in the late 1880s, because of the formation of a second major league, teams began to compete harder for attention and fans. Over time, Cincinnati, home of history’s first professional baseball team, became the pre-eminent city for opening day in baseball. By 1900, capacity crowds at the ballparks, dignitaries and festivities, and the pregame parade became the tradition.

The merchants of Findlay Market have been participating in the parade since 1920, and by the 1930s the pregame activities were being referred to as the Findlay Market Parade.

Local television began covering the procession live for the first time in 1970 when the Reds moved to Riverfront Stadium.

In the 1990s elephants from the Cincinnati Zoo joined in the parade.

Reach John Hackley at 937-402-2571.