HONOLULU COUNTY, Hawaii — As strong storms hit Hawaii, the Northwest Guilford High School band is performing on Tuesday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
"It’s been severely wet," said director of bands Brian McMath. "Most of the time we’ve been changing clothes two or three times a day and attempting to dry our shoes with hairdryers, paper, or something else because they’re just soaking wet."
The band is performing at the 80th Commemoration Concert Series, originally scheduled to be at Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum’s Hangar 79. However, due to storms, it has been moved inside of a hotel.
"Pearl Harbor aviation would shut it down if it was lighting because it was tented, but of course metal poles are holding the tents up so for safety reasons and kids and spectators they’ve moved it indoors," said McMath.
Though McMath said it's still an honor to perform.
"It’s an amazing experience to be offered the position to come in and perform," said McMath. "The one reason I love traveling with kids, I take them all over the world (to) different events, (is) to get them to experience different cultures, different languages, different foods, just the way people live differently."
RELATED: Northwest Guilford High band to perform at 80th Commemoration Concert Series at Pearl Harbor
This storm is unusual for Hawaii. Honolulu got eight inches of rain on Monday alone. That is similar to what the Piedmont Triad saw during Hurricane Florence in total.
The group of 156 students and faculty arrived in Hawaii Saturday and will perform a series of Christmas songs for the concert.
"We practiced biweekly for about five weeks," said assistant drum major Meredith Clark. "We only had about two hours every practice so it was a bit tough to really cram in all the things that we’re playing but I think that we worked efficiently."
Overall though, students have been taking in all they can in Hawaii
"It’s been great, other than the rain, it’s just a different experience than being at home in North Carolina," said drum major Logan Monday.
You can watch the performance below.