ORLANDO, Fla. – The City Beautiful is in full celebration mode this weekend as it once again hosts the Florida Blue Florida Classic, a weekend full of events including the Battle of the Bands.
“Look at this room, this shows that there was pent-up demand, pent-up excitement for this weekend,” Tony Jenkins said.
Jenkins is the Market President of Florida Blue in the central region.
Excitement and joy filled the room during a luncheon to officially start the weekend before Saturday’s game between the Bethune Cookman’s Wildcats and the Florida A&M Rattlers.
Last year, the event had to be canceled due to COVID-19.
“This is like a family reunion between the two institutions; while sometimes there may be disagreement about who’s gonna win the football game, they’re very unified about educating young black men and women here in the state of Florida,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said. “This is really one of the first major sporting events, outdoor sporting events, that we’ve held since the pandemic started and so this is a signal that we are recovering well here within this community.”
The local economic impact will not only help the city of Orlando but funds also go toward school programs and scholarships of both universities, among the most historic black colleges and universities.
“[This is} very important for the Central Florida community. This provides an economic impact anywhere from $25-30 million,” Jenkins told News 6.
On Saturday, Florida’s A&M Rattlers and Bethune Cookman’s Wildcats will face off at Camping World Stadium. It will be the 75th time both teams meet on the field. The night before game time, one of the Classic’s signature events will be back, too. The Battle of the Bands. Ocoee High School’s band will be performing for the fifth time.
“Everything we did this year so far, has been under the umbrella of the “comeback” So, what we’re gonna do tonight is take some things that are kind of the old school and kind of bringing them into the new school,” Bernie Hendricks, the band director of Ocoee high school said. Hendricks is also a FAMU alumnus.