Since we are unable to travel on tour this year, we wanted to share some stories from our staff of their favourite tour memories from when they were in band!
Ashley Baes
The year that I was in Stetsons we went to Florida! It was so much fun! We visited and performed at some of the big parks: Disney, Universal, and the Kennedy Space Center. Florida is HUMID, so luckily all of our performances were short, sweet, and accompanied by large audiences which is always rewarding. Those performance days were followed by long days on rides or exploring parks which made this tour feel just like a vacation.
There were so many highlights on this tour. As a big Harry Potter fan, visiting Harry Potter World at Universal Studios blew my mind! My friends and I tried all the classics, butterbeer, chocolate frogs, and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. Another one of my favourite days was the day we went to Disney World. It was my 16th birthday and I was greeted by Snow White who gave me a Happy Birthday button that I still have to this day. What a magical way to spend the day in the happiest place on earth with amazing friends!
Sarah Rossi
On my first tour with the Stetson Showband in 2015, I had the opportunity to visit Disneyland for the very first time. This was an especially exciting tour for me because I am a huge Disney fan and I was so thrilled to know that I got to go to such an amazing place with some of my friends that have become my now lifelong friends. We were given so much freedom and the amount of memories we made even in one day was beyond what I had anticipated.
Throughout the tour, we visited Santa Monica Pier, saw the play Matilda, and I had a fun time interacting with the shrimp mascot at Bubba Gump’s restaurant. We were given free time within the cities we visited to go shop or be a tourist and see the sites and that was one of the first times in my life where I was able to experience freedom as a young adult. The band was given the opportunity to go backstage at Disney and record some of the soundtracks to some key Disney moments and that is where I fell in love with music as a whole. Being able to parade down Main street Disney is a memory that will never leave me and made me love parades because of the smiles that the band put on the visitor’s faces. That whole tour I was in a constant state of joy because I was surrounded by friends and staff that made me feel a part of a huge family. I knew a year prior when I joined the Calgary Round-Up band that I loved this activity but the 2015 season really made me realize that the activity is something very special that provides opportunities and memories unlike anywhere else.
