Members of the De Soto High School band are left on a trip to Washington D.C. on March 7. It is the first time the De Soto band has been  to D.C. in over 12 years.

“This trip is new to me, De Soto hasn’t gone on this trip since, it’s probably been 12, 13, or 14 years, and we go on a trip every other year,” band teacher Matthew Bradford said.

The band won’t just be performing while on the trip, activities such as visiting the White House, Union Station and the Arlington cemetery are in store.

“We’re going to do a lot of stuff, we’re going to go to a lot of national parks … [and] a lot of memorials. We will [also] be going to the Smithsonian to see several museums there, there’s just so many things there,” Bradford said.

Students will be playing at the Lincoln Memorial as well as at the University of Maryland.

“We’re playing a lot of music. We’re playing some songs that people would know, we’re playing a lot of songs that people wouldn’t know, just really beautiful classical and contemporary music,”  senior band member Zac Matthew said.

In order to pay for the trip band students fundraised to cover the costs.

“It was over $800 to go on the trip, we did a lot of fundraising and almost everybody payed for the whole trip just by fundraising,” Bradford said.

Bradford and the band are hoping everything goes well and that all the equipment they need will successfully get on the buses. The band leaves on March 7 and returns on March 14.