LUMP X KC Chiefs – From a Band Member’s Eyes

When it comes to deciding that you are going to march in an HBCU marching band, you are sort of going into it understanding you are not going to be your average college student. Band students do not get to just go to class, go to dinner, and just stay home for the rest of the night. As a band member, you spend most nights of the semester on the field or in the band room practicing for hours at a time. It becomes so routine that whenever friends ask questions like “what you have planned?” 9 times out of 10, the response is going to be “I have practice” or “I have a performance.” When it comes to being a member of the Langston University Marching Pride band, I can most definitely say this is what it’s like for us in this Fall 2025 semester.

The band has been booked and busy this semester, with multiple performances taking place between August and September. Every performance took us to a different state and gave us a new opportunity to be seen. One of the most prominent performances that we have done this semester has to be the Chiefs game vs the Eagles. This was not only an NFL game, but also a Super Bowl rematch, which made the game that much more significant. I always found the way I found out to be kind of funny.

I remember coming to campus and trying to get everything together for band camp for the freshman. I check my phone and see Prof Gordon is on the news talking about the busy season we had ahead of us. He then went on to say how we were performing for the Kansas City Chiefs vs the Philadelphia Eagles game and how he had not told us as a band yet. Now, of course, there was some talk about potentially doing certain big performances, but up to that point, nothing was ever confirmed or set in stone. I remember after hearing it, I couldn’t help but go from shocked to excited and quickly went to talk to some of my fellow band members about it.

When camp started up, I went into Prof Allen’s office one day and asked more about it, and he confirmed it. The contract was already done, and we were for sure going to do that performance in September. This performance had to be placed on the back burner for a while as we still had many other performances ahead of it in August. So, by the time we got to the week leading up to the Chiefs game, we had already been practicing and performing just about every day for 5 weeks. However, even though most of the band (myself included) were feeling the aftermath of the practices and back-to-back weeks of traveling, the energy was still good going into the week.

We started off learning Taylor Swift’s popular song “Shake It Off” and were told that we would only have 5 minutes to perform, as a lot was going on that day, so everything had to be done on time. The first day out on the field that week, we were not exactly told what we were making at first; we were just told where to go and where to stand. Shortly after, we did find out that we were making the Kansas City Chiefs logo on the field. It was not until Friday that we were told that we were not able to use ‘Shake It Off’ due to it being a big game, and we did not get the rights to use the song. We also made some changes and added to the dance routine that we had been practicing all week. So, by the end of practice on Friday, we had successfully put a different song on the field and put together the complete dance routine.

The call time for Sunday was 4 am, and we had to arrive in full uniform. You can imagine that the band wasn’t exactly thrilled to hear this; however, it was crucial that every member had everything they needed for this major performance. The buses arrived around 5 or 6 am, we left about 7 am, and got to Kansas City around 10 am. There was an absolute sea of red when we pulled up due to the crazy amount of Chiefs fans tailgating outside the stadium. We were able to go into the stadium to practice at around 12, and although the stadium was empty, it was still a sight to behold. That was my first time in Kansas City and being inside the Chiefs stadium, so it was definitely a unique experience for me personally. You could see on the screens “world’s loudest stadium,” and seeing that after knowing we practiced coming on the field without the drum major’s whistles (in case we could not hear him) made things all come together.

We went back to eat, and this is when we were told that Patrick Mahomes had actually watched us practice our show in the stadium. I may not be the biggest football fan in the world, but I could understand that some people could only dream of having that happen to them. The same can be said for when it was time to actually hit the field. When it came down to walking into the stadium and seeing all the thousands of fans cheering, it was an unreal feeling. You would think after doing it for so long, it would get old, but it has not for me. The only thing that changed over time was nerves, because even though a lot was going on, I actually wasn’t nervous for the performance at all. I was really just taking it all in and was ready to perform to the best of my ability.

As we went to line up on the field, you could feel the energy in the stadium. We ran into the KC logo formation, and I could hear the crowd going crazy right before we hit the first note. While being on the field, my view was limited to the band members in front of me and only parts of the crowd. The only thing going through my mind was to make sure I play the right notes, hit the right dance moves, and make sure I look good doing it. Once we finished and got off the field, all you could hear was the cheers from the thousands of fans in the stadium. As we walked out, both adults and younger kids reached out, wanting high fives and trying to talk to us.

It truly felt as if we were celebrities in that moment. Once we got back to the bus, I remember telling my bandmate how crazy it was that we did that, and yet the vibe on the bus was as if this was a normal weekly occurrence. For me, it really did not hit until after the fact that “wow, we really just performed for an NFL team,” and not many people can say that they did that.

I saw so many different videos and angles from our performance and could only feel pride because it was honestly our best performance of the semester, in my opinion. A fun fact about this performance is that it was not until after the fact that we were told that Taylor Swift herself actually showed the video of us playing her song, and she loved it. If only we had gotten the rights to the song and been able to perform it for her, as she was also at the game.