Iowa Marching Band Now To Perform During Citrus Bowl Halftime

In a turn of events, the University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band will now be performing during halftime of the Citrus Bowl in which the Iowa Hawkeye football team will be taking on the Tennessee Volunteers.

The news is music to everyone's ears since the original plan for the Citrus Bowl's halftime show didn't include Hawkeye Marching Band 143.

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Iowa Marching Band Originally Not A Part Of Halftime Show

According to a post on Dec. 6th from Hawkeye Heaven, the online source of news for all things Iowa Hawkeyes, the Hawkeye Marching Band was not on the lineup to perform during the halftime show at the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.

The page shared a message from Christian Frankl, the drum major of the Hawkeye Marching Band.

The post garnered more than 20,000 shares, almost 1,000 comments, and over 6,000 reactions on social media and called for the officials at the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl to let HMB 143 perform at the game on January 1st, 2024.

Iowa Marching Band Gets The Green Light

In a social media post on Sunday, Dec. 10, the official University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band posted on social media that the band will be performing New Year's Day at the Citrus Bowl during pre-game and halftime.

The social media post read:

"We are so excited to perform both pregame and halftime at the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl! We are grateful to Florida Citrus Sports, both universities and our friends at The University of Tennessee Bands - Pride of the Southland Band for working together to present what is sure to be an outstanding game day experience!"

Officials from the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl had a statement on the matter, too:

Official message from The Citrus Bowl:

"We're working closely with Iowa and Tennessee to design a great experience for this year's Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. The university bands will perform on the field both in pregame and at halftime. We appreciate the creativity and goodwill of the university band leaders to make this possible.
During the halftime show presented by Cheez-It Snap'd, our live performance will be followed by traditional bowl game performances from The Hawkeye Marching Band and The Pride of the Southland Band.
We have a special day planned for the Vols, the Hawkeyes and the coast-to-coast audience who gather around their televisions for this New Year's tradition. We look forward to welcoming everyone to Orlando for "The Best Bowl Trip in America" later this month."

That is awesome news. The Citrus Bowl will be the final performance for seniors in the Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band.

The Cheez-It Citrus Bowl featuring the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Tennessee Volunteers takes place on Sunday, Jan. 1, 2024, in Orlando, FL. Kickoff is at 12 p.m. CT.