“Cutting Edge” gets trimmed by travel agent

The Willard (Mo.) High School “Cutting Edge,” a 220-member outfit that is one of the country’s top high school marching bands, has sued a Michigan travel agency over a trip to Hawaii.  They’re going to have some problems, though.

The band had been invited to participate in the Pan Pacific Parade and to perform concerts at the U.S.S Arizona Memorial and on the U.S.S. Missouri, and had struck a deal with Performing Arts Abroad of Richland, Michigan, for the travel.  PAA quoted a price of $460,000, and the band agreed, paying the full amount in advance.  Later, however, PAA announced that the band owed another $42,000, “due to increases in tariffs and costs,” and that unless the band shelled out the additional money, it would forfeit the entire sum already paid.

The band paid under protest, went to Hawaii and had a great time, and has now sued PAA in Greene County (Mo.) circuit court.  They’ll probably have their work cut out for them, though.  According to the AP, a school in Tulare, California, had a similar experience, and the telephone numbers for PAA have been disconnected.  And as of this writing PAA’s web site isn’t operational, either.