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Sixty-eight students from Plainfield East High School’s band and choir will travel to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, over Thanksgiving break to perform at the theme park. The trip continues a tradition for the school, which offers its music students a performance opportunity at Disney every four years.
The group is scheduled to leave on Sunday, November 23, and return on Saturday, November 29. During their stay, students will visit all four Disney parks and participate in two major performances.
The band has been selected to take part in the 2025 Disney Thanksgiving Day Parade of Bands. Their performance will be held on Thanksgiving morning in front of Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom. They are among several schools chosen from across the country for this event. The band’s repertoire includes “Mickey Mouse March,” a medley called “Disney Celebration,” “Star Wars,” “Mary Poppins,” as well as patriotic and holiday-themed Disney medleys.
Band members have been preparing since the end of last school year with rehearsals continuing through summer mini-camps and fall after-school practices. A guest clinician from Disney visited Plainfield East High School to work with students on their performance pieces.
The choir will join performers from around the country for the Candlelight Processional at EPCOT on Friday, November 28. This event features a mass choir, orchestra, and celebrity narrator.
PEHS sophomore choir student Dani Padilla said, “I'm so excited to hear how all the people in the mass choir will sound in unity.”
Jenna Wojdula, PEHS Band Director, commented on what performing at Disney means for her students: “It is such an incredible honor to have been selected. Our students get to experience something that so few others ever do, performing at Disney alongside professional Disney performers. We are absolutely thrilled to share this experience and the magic of Disney with them.”
Plainfield East High School serves grades 9 through 12 with an enrollment of 2,162 during the 2019-2020 school year. The largest percentage of students was found in grade 10 with nearly a quarter of all enrolled students according to Illinois Report Card data (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). The school population is diverse: approximately 42 percent white students, nearly 26 percent Hispanic students, about 16 percent black students, and almost 11 percent Asian students (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
