AMHERST — For the second time in its history, the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band will perform at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade next year.

Band members celebrated Band Director Timothy Todd Anderson’s announcement during the halftime show at the recent UMass vs. Toledo game, which coincided with Band Day — the annual performance that features thousands of high schoolers who travel from across New England to practice and perform with the band. Anderson waited for Band Day to release the news, which he held onto since the spring, when UMass and nine other bands were chosen from more than 100 applicants.

“I wondered if there were some rumors going around,” said Anderson, who watched the band burst into “incredible excitement” once they heard the news.

“My jaw dropped,” said Taylor Durant, a junior leading the feature twirlers. “I could tell something was different about this announcement. … I never would have guessed it would be the Macy’s parade.”

Durant watches the parade with her family every year, including when UMass performed in front of the Macy’s flagship store in 2013.

“It’s a part of every Thanksgiving tradition in every family across the country,” Durant said.

Anderson made the announcement alongside UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes and local Macy’s store manager Jim Maher, who presented the band with a $10,000 check to launch its fundraising campaign for the parade. The Macy’s parade is the largest in the world and the second oldest, and next year will be celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Among the chief costs of participation, the band will need to pay for transportation, hotel accommodations and meals for the band, which currently has 340 members.

Tenor trombone player Brayden Hackett said his family hopes to attend the parade in person next year.

“It’s going to be a different Thanksgiving, but in the best way,” said Hackett, a freshman.

Hackett can brace for an early Thanksgiving morning next year. Anderson said that when the band performed in the 2013 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the members left their hotel at 3 a.m. for a 4:15 a.m. rehearsal before the parade began at 9 a.m. Band members lined up near Central Park and marched nearly 3 miles to the flagship store, where their performance was broadcasted for 75 seconds to 50 million viewers.

Last year’s parade drew 27.7 million viewers, greatly exceeding the number of people the band typically entertains at football games and local parades.

“This will be the biggest performance that I have ever — and will ever — be a part of,” said Lauren de Melo, a junior who leads the cymbal section.

Next year’s parade is one of many large performances the band, which turns 150 years old this school year, has been a part of in recent decades, including three presidential inaugural parades in 1981, 1985 and 2001, as well as the Rose Parade in 2018. The band that performed in the Rose Parade featured more than 400 students and was the biggest ensemble Anderson has directed at UMass. He is hopeful that returning to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will boost numbers once again.

“It’s a huge recruiting tool,” Anderson said. “If you’re a [high school] senior, come to UMass, and you can be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade next year.”