LABELLE- The LaBelle High School Cowboy Band will not be marching in the annual Swamp Cabbage Festival in LaBelle this year.
Cowboy band director Alex Burden posted an update on the band’s booster Facebook page on Feb. 9 announcing that the band wouldn’t be marching the parade due to the introduction of entry fees.
“Last season, after decades of participating in the parade without a fee, the parade committee decided to implement a fee for parade participants,” explained Burden in the post. “At that time, I asked them to waive the fee for the school. They did waive the fee and I was grateful. This year the fee is not being waived for schools, and I am refusing to pay the fee on principle.”
Burden went on to say that preparation for the Swamp Cabbage Festival involves a lot of sacrifice from the program. The program purchases uniforms and flags to fit the theme of the parade, rehearses three days after school the week of the parade and band members give up an entire Saturday on the day of the parade.
In the comments of the post multiple community members offered to cover the cost of the fee for the band, including Hendry County Commissioner Ramon Iglesias. But, in his original post, Burden says it wasn’t about the $50 fee, stating that it is a privilege for the Swamp Cabbage Parade to have the Cowboy Band participate in the event and stated that the band program will not be charged an extra fee when they are already giving so much.
Many parades have entry fees for those wanting to participate. Those fees can help cover things like security costs for the extra law enforcement needed to man the parade to infrastructure costs, and logistics and marketing of the event. In 2024, another rural Florida town, Okeechobee, revealed that they had to spend $5,000 on their annual parade.
In a March 2024 Okeechobee City Council meeting, members discussed the costs of setting up and running one of their annual parades and revealed that the Speckled Perch parade that year lasted 12 minutes and cost around $5,000
The Okeechobee High School Brahman Band participates in those parades, which also have entry fees. But a Brahman Band booster says that they usually work with the organizers of the parade and have those fees waived.
On Feb. 12, Swamp Cabbage organizer and former Cowboy Band alumni Heath Daniels responded to the post by Burden on the Swamp Cabbage Festival’s Facebook page. After reviewing all the messages the festival organizers received, he believes it all came down to a misunderstanding. He also revealed that the festival would love to waive or sponsor the band as they did last year, but hadn’t actually received any entry paperwork from the Cowboy Band.
“Myself and the other festival organizers were shocked when we saw the LHS band's social media post and promptly reached out to resolve this conflict with no response,” explained Daniels. “We would have loved to have the opportunity to internally sponsor the LHS Band again as we have done previously, but we have not received a parade entry submission for the LHS Band into the 2026 parade. Without an entry submission we have nothing to work with, no fee to waive, sponsor, refund whatever term you want to use.”
“If we do receive a band entry we still will sponsor it,” continued Daniels. “We appreciate the band and acknowledge their hard work, and our offer from last year to have the band play on the stage as a paid entertainment act still stands if you ever want to do it in the future.”
Daniels went on to say that the festival is still actively working with all parties to ensure the band will be able to march in the parade.
As of this time, Cowboy Band director Alex Burden has not publicly accepted the offer from former Cowboy Band member Heath Daniels. So, for the moment, the students in the Cowboy Band will miss out on the opportunity to perform in front of their community at the annual Swamp Cabbage Festival.
![The Cowboy Band performs at the 2025 Swamp Cabbage Festival. [Photo by Richard Marion/Lake Okeechobee News]](https://eta.creativecirclecdn.com/scfl/original/20260213-154720-e90-Cowboy%20Band%20opts%20out-2.jpg)
