Walking down the streets of Manhattan in a fleece lined red jumpsuit, raising a red and white flag in the air, cold rain pours down on the crowd, drenching them through.

The streets are lined with smiling, excited faces, some adorn turkey hats and big rain coats, others hold signs while screaming “It’s my birthday!”

Towering above are endless buildings, people crowding the windows, looking down at the annual Thanksgiving festivities below.

Amongst the flying character balloons, celebrity filled floats and starry eyed crowd were two Lafayette students, senior Gracie Hagen and sophomore Emma Hagen, who found themselves spinning with the Macy’s Great American Marching Band color guard, Nov. 28, which marked the 98th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

Each year, the Macy’s Great American Marching Band holds open-call auditions for high school marching band members including musicians, dancers and color guard performers. Auditions opened in January and, after finding out about the opportunity from a flautist in Parkway West’s marching band, the Hagen’s began putting together choreography for their video auditions.

“I honestly had no idea [if I’d get in] because I didn’t know how many people were auditioning,” Emma said. “So, I just kind of said ‘you know, we’ll see if it works, and if not, it doesn’t hurt to try.’”

While both sisters applied, neither knew if they would make it into the team, but they hoped they could share the experience.

In March, only three months after submitting their application, the Hagens found out they got in.

“At first I was super nervous because I saw [my acceptance] and I was just hoping we would both get in,” Gracie said. 

Gracie had been the first to find out about making it into the parade, but wasn’t sure if Emma had as well. In fact, Emma did not even know herself because she had not checked to see if she had gotten in.

“We were walking out of school one day and Gracie said ‘Did you get an email?’ So I checked and saw [the acceptance]. ” Emma said, “I knew she got in, so it was exciting to know we would get to go together.”

Growing up, the Hagen’s were surrounded by color guard. Their mother had participated in the sport in high school and had coached the Pattonville color guard team for eight years. Even after she stopped coaching, their mom would take them to Lafayette color guard performances, and both sisters knew they would join the team their freshman year.

“We were around guard kind of our whole lives. We did a variety show with little, tiny flags in elementary school and went to some camps for elementary school kids,” Emma said.

Both girls have been on the color guard and winter guard teams since their freshman year, with Gracie having been a section leader her junior and senior year.

The parade consisted of three separate performances: a pre-recorded routine with Billy Porter, the parade itself and a final live performance at Herald’s Square.

The color guard did not learn their choreography until arriving in New York, both because it was relatively simple and to ensure no one learned it incorrectly.

“We had heard people saying the first day is kind of like your audition for where you are going to be in the performance and everything,” Emma said. “So, I was definitely trying to sell it and I was a little nervous.”

Despite the long practices, neither of the Hagens were particularly strained, being used to long staging camps back at Lafayette for color guard.

“I mean, we have weekend camps here [at Lafayette], we just had a nine hour one on Saturday. Our longest practice for the Macy’s parade was six hour and then they just got shorter each day,” Emma said. “It was fun. The choreo is pretty easy so it was mostly just having a good time, and working with a different instructor is always fun.”

Outside of practices, the marching band would go on group outings to different tourism hotspots such as Rockafeller Center, the Rockettes and the American Dream Mall.

“Sometimes it felt a bit crazy to think that I was walking around Times Square with a few other high schoolers, but it was really, really fun to enjoy it with people I was just meeting,” Emma said. “Since you’re spending the whole day with them, you get to know people really well. It was just a really cool experience.”

On Thanksgiving Day, the marching band took to the parade route at 3:40 a.m. to practice their performance.

“It was a very wild experience because the streets are all blocked off. Everything was empty, but it was still New York, so everything was still plenty bright. That was really cool,” Gracie said.

After breakfast, the guard rehearsed the pre-recorded Billy Porter performance before finally filming it in three takes.

Then, it was time to start the parade.

The rain had drenched the guards’ flags, and although they had learned the choreo to perform as they walked the parade route, the coach ended up taking it out. Instead, the guard members were able to wave to parade watchers.

“That was really fun because that allowed us to just look around the city, see all the people watching the parade, [watching] us,” Emma said. “We were saying ‘Happy Thanksgiving!’ to each other, so it felt a little bit smaller than it seems on TV because you’re having those personal interactions. Those little, small connections made it feel a lot more like the homecoming parade than this big national parade.”

Their second and final performance happened at the very end of the Parade in Herald’s square.

“The actual parade is 2.5 miles, but it didn’t feel that long,” Gracie said. “We were waving to everyone and at the end [we got] to Herald’s Square. That was really cool because you could hear Hoda and everything she’s saying live.”

Although they had to perform their final routine after the entire parade, Gracie said it seemed to fly by so fast she didn’t even notice the cameras.

“You have to be dead silent while you’re waiting and then they give you a ‘3, 2, 1’ and you go, you perform. Then you get off and you’re done. It [was] maybe a minute,” Gracie said. “Honestly, my hands were so cold from the rain that I was just hoping I could hold my flag. We were completely soaked through, but it’s ok, it was worth it.”

Emma felt the same as she performed their final routine.

“When we were actually performing, I was really just focused on the cameras and wasn’t even thinking about that aspect,” Emma said. “But then you get off and you’re like ‘wow, that was just on TV,’ and it’s kind of crazy to imagine until we went back and watched it and [thought] ‘oh, that actually happened.’”

After the parade, the Hagens said they had friends saying they saw them in the parade and had many people send them videos of their performances.

“It was a very unique experience. Just seeing all of the dancers and our whole band coming together, and then getting to watch it back later, see how it all turned out,” Gracie said.

Although they never met any celebrities one on one, they did get the chance to see a number of them.

“Going into it, I was like ‘Oh I really want to see Jimmy Fallon and Al Roker, that would be so fun,’” Emma said. “We saw both of them literally just walk past.”

The band had consisted of high school performers from across the country, but both Emma and Gracie made friends they plan to keep in touch with.

“We definitely made some good friends that hopefully we’ll see somewhere in the Winter Guard world. Just the experience of the parade, and seeing all the people you’re walking past, that will stick with me,” Gracie said.

Although she is graduating this year, Gracie hopes to continue spinning at whatever college she attends.

With two years and four guard seasons left with Lafayette, Emma plans to participate in every one.

However, this winter guard season will be the last season the Hagens will both spin at Lafayette.

“It was really fun to have the same experience together, and [performing in] such a big thing together, doing guard which we both love, was really, really cool,” Emma said.