Prattville sends off Pride of Prattville for Philadelphia parade
Prattville families lined the route Tuesday to send off nearly 100 Pride of Prattville students headed for Philadelphia. The band is Alabama’s only invitee to the parade.
Families, friends and neighbors lined the route Tuesday afternoon in Prattville to cheer the Pride of Prattville Marching Band during its final sendoff parade rehearsal before the students left for Philadelphia. The trip puts Prattville High School’s musicians on a national stage during the America 250 celebration, with the band listed for a July 1 to July 8, 2026, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., trip.
The band has been invited to the Salute to Independence Semiquincentennial Parade, set for Friday, July 3, in Center City Philadelphia. Organizers say the parade will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on East Market Street between 2nd Street and City Hall and will feature 250 elements, 50 marching bands, 13 floats, and military and special units. The April reporting on the band’s plans said nearly 100 Prattville High School students were preparing to travel and perform, and that Prattville was the only band from Alabama selected for the Philadelphia parade.
At Prattville High School, the Pride of Prattville is part of a larger band program that has spent months getting ready for the trip. Chris King has directed bands at Prattville High School since 2013, after teaching at Prattville Junior High, Wetumpka, Chilton County and Adair Junior High. The sendoff reflected the work behind the performance as much as the performance itself, with families and school supporters turning out to recognize the rehearsals, travel logistics and discipline it takes to move a student ensemble from Prattville to one of the country’s biggest July Fourth week events.
The Philadelphia parade itself changed just before the holiday. NBC10 Philadelphia reported June 30 that extreme heat shortened the route from 2.4 miles to about one mile, while keeping the start at Independence Hall and the finish near Chestnut and Broad streets. Organizers also planned air-conditioned SEPTA buses and an additional water station for participants.
Prattville’s America250 calendar was not limited to the trip north. WAKA’s local event list showed a Friday, July 3 concert and drone show at Stanley-Jensen Stadium featuring Blackberry Breeze, giving Autauga County residents their own Independence Day week event while the Pride of Prattville represented the city in Philadelphia.
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