The Ohio State Marching Band will travel to Dublin, Ireland, to perform at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Credit: Courtesy of The Ohio State Marching Band
Ohio State’s marching band — best known as “The Best Damn Band in the Land,” or TBDBITL — is Ireland-bound for the spring break of a lifetime.?
The group will perform in the famed Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Parade and sightsee together for the band’s first trip out of the country in over a decade.?
Associates with the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Parade first contacted the marching band’s director, Christopher Hoch, over two years ago, prompting an official application and acceptance in spring 2024. The group will travel as a unit of 247 members, splitting time between the March 17 parade and visits to sights such as The Cliffs of Moher and Blarney Castle & Gardens.
“This will be my second opportunity to take the marching band overseas,” Hoch said. “[The] first time we did was in 2015, so it’s been more than 10 years, and I think it’s about time to get out there and have this experience.”
In 2015, TBDBITL traveled to London to march at a Regent Street parade and perform at Wembley Stadium prior to the NFL matchup between ??the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars, per a previous Ohio State article. This trip was brief, however, with a turn-around time of only three days, Hoch said.??
TBDBITL’s Ireland trip will be a much different experience, with the trip spanning Saturday to March 21, leaving plenty of time for sightseeing.?
The band has been anticipating the trip for roughly a year-and-a-half, as Hoch made the official announcement in October 2024.?
“We were on the practice field, circled up, and they told us we were going to Ireland — it was just unreal,” said Bobby Petty, a fifth-year in trumpet performance and E-flat cornet player. “Especially knowing it was going to be my last season of band. This will be my last thing to go out with.”
Petty said his career with TBDBITL has been full of excitement.?
“I think [my favorite experience so far is] our playoff run last year, getting to be there for all of those games was just unreal,” Petty said. “Especially because we were all so bummed after we lost the game to Michigan … just get[ting] to be there and celebrate with our team and all of our fans for all that was just, I mean, that kind of made it so I’ve been able to do all the things, because the National Championship is not something everybody gets to go to.”
Now, his experience comes to an end with the opportunity to travel abroad and perform in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.?
“There’s so much that we get to do — obviously the parade is going to be awesome because not many people get to say they marched in the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day parade,” Petty said. “We’re gonna have a lot of time to just be in Ireland and explore things as well, so I think there’s gonna be a lot of fun things that we get to do there for sure.”
Hoch said the band will meet for three rehearsals beginning March 2 up through their departure. Due to the fact that TBDBITL is not in session during the spring, he said special permission was required for the parade practice sessions.?
“For us, we do enough of them throughout the course of the season that usually the students are pretty good at getting back into it,” Hoch said. “[It’s] just a matter of getting the music put together, memorized and then getting the parade [and] the physicality required — getting everybody back in shape with some practices and things.”?
During their preparation, TBDBITL has been practicing their standard music in addition to any special pieces selected for the trip.?
The parade runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. GMT, or 7 to 9 a.m. EST, with the band performing at 8 a.m. EST. It will be live streamed on the international streaming platform RT? One and via the RT? Player mobile app.?
