The Air Force\u2019s multiple bands gathered last week for a rousing performance of \u201cWe Wish You a Merry Christmas\u201d during their annual holiday \u201cflash mob\u201d \u2014 but it is likely to be the tradition\u2019s finale.
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In a release about the performance, which also included a choral rendition of the traditional song \u201cDona Nobis Pacem,\u201d the Air Force Band said this is its fifth flash mob and the last one planned \u201cat least for the foreseeable future.\u201d
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\u201cWe have had a good run of five years of these [flash mobs], and we are looking for new and innovative projects to move to next,\u201d said Col. Larry Lang, Air Force Band commander and conductor, in a statement to Air Force Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nov. 29 performance at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, included members of all six performing flights of the Air Force Band, even veering through a section of dueling Irish fiddles from Celtic Aire and a swing interlude from Airmen of Note. Fourteen Irish step dancers and swing dancers \u2015 who were not airmen \u2015 joined the band for those sections. The band said that 150 Air Force musicians and 20 honor guard members took part in the performance.
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The band\u2019s release called the performance \u201cthe most complex and ambitious endeavor yet,\u201d partly due to the large, cavernous venue and its challenging acoustics. Some members of the bands had wireless earpieces playing a pre-recorded version of the music with a \u201cclick track\u201d metronome helping keep the beat and keep the bands in time.
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Previous performances have included handbells<\/a>, a World War II-themed swing performance<\/a> in honor of the 70th anniversary of the war\u2019s end, and a thunderous \u201cCarol of the Bells\u201d<\/a> performed in the Air and Space Museum\u2019s Udvar-Hazy Center. The band\u2019s original flash mob<\/a> in 2013 surprised visitors at the Air and Space Museum in Washington.
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