It was at Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock’s suggestion that the nine members of the Montbello High School Drum Line got the chance of a lifetime — to take the second historic flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on United Airline’s new direct flight between Denver and Tokyo.
The students raised money for the trip with the help of sponsors, and they performed their synchronized drumming at the U.S. Ambassador’s home in Tokyo, and several times in Takayama, Denver’s sister city. The news report below is a sample of a half-hour special that airs this Friday, July 19 at 9:30 on KDVR Fox31. These students were cultural ambassadors for Colorado in Japan.
So the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival is proud to introduce the Montbello High School Drum Line as one of the highlights of this year’s Opening Ceremony.
The Opening Ceremony, which begins at 10 am on Saturday, July 27, also includes a spiritual Eye-Dotting Ceremony with chanting Buddhist monks to awaken the spirit of the dragon boats; a dynamic Dragon Dance; and an Olympics-style Team Parade. The Drum Line will get the chance to perform in front of Mayor Hancock, who will speak during the ceremony.
Here’s a (very long, for TV news) report on KDVR Fox31 about the Drum Line’s journey to Japan. The station airs a half-hour documentary this Friday, July 19 at 9:30 pm. Set your DVRs now…
Here’s the full half-hour documentary on FOX31:
For more information about the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, visit www.cdbf.org.
(Full disclosure: I’m the media chair for the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival’s Operations Committee, and this post is being cross-posted on CDBF.org.)
