The Shadow
HARRISONBURG, VA (VR) – Hayden Paxton of Millboro will be among 375 members of the James Madison University Marching Royal Dukes to perform Sunday at the Xfinity 500 NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia.
Paxton is a Music major who has been an MRD member for 1 year(s).
The race marks the first NASCAR appearance for the band, commonly referred to as Virginia’s finest, and joins a list of high-profile events during its history. The band has also performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, at presidential inaugurations and at international events.
Shortly before the race begins at 2 p.m., the band will march down the track’s main straightaway, fan out near the start-finish line and turn toward the grandstands. Although it will play a standard marching-band version of The Star-Spangled Banner, the importance of the song and the ritual is not lost on interim band director Amy Birdsong. “It’s a captive audience of patriotic fans, many of whom will be singing along,” she said. Fireworks and a military flyover are scheduled to cap off the performance.
More information about Sunday’s experience can be found here. More information about the MRDs is available on the MRD website.
