News dal sito DCE

Black Knights Drum & Bugle Corps from Gravesend will be performing at the Leeuwarden Tattoo this year. It will be the first time that the DCE finalist participates in a Dutch tattoo.

Every year, the Leeuwarden Tattoo presents a varied programme with participants from all backgrounds. The drum corps style is involved in this, because in almost every edition a corps is contracted that treats the audience to a drum corps show. In the past year, the Black Knights did very well at the DCE Championships by getting into the top three of the Premier Class for the first time.

The Black Knights will be in good company on Saturday the 5th of October at the WTC Expo, because Dutch top corps such as K&G, Pasveerkorps and Advendo are participating in the tattoo. It is not the first time that an English drum & bugle corps is invited to participate. In 2006, The Senators from Eastleigh were welcomed in Leeuwarden.

For the first time since the last live PBS broadcast of the World Championships in 2001, fans around the world will be able to watch the DCI Finals live online on Saturday 10th August.

“If you can’t make it to Indianapolis, this is really the next best thing to being there on Saturday night,” said John DeNovi, DCI Director of Sales and Business Development.

Not only can fans view each corps’ performance live, but other looks inside the event will be available, including a camera at the exit tunnel featuring exclusive post-performance interviews. In addition, the webcast’s DVR function will allow fans to rewind to the beginning of the show and watch at their own pace.

The webcast will be offered through www.dcifinals.com with pay-per-view access available for $69, and a $20 discount available to current DCI Fan Network subscribers.

The now familiar DCE Document Manager will cease to exist. It will be replaced by the DCE Dashboard which, in addition to the management of jury files, will have several extra features and will serve as a central “ticket office” for corps, judges and the organisation.

The DCE Dashboard is online (www.drumcorpseurope.org/dashboard) and currently has the same features as the Document Manager, which is integrated into the dashboard. However, the dashboard will soon expand with lots of added features. This way, corps can keep their programmes and other data up-to-date, change contact information, update their corps page on the DCE website and sign up for the DCE Championships with one click.

The dashboard is also available for judges, staff and partner organisations with specific features for each group. “It is convenient to be able to do all of your admin work from one location,” says IT manager Rob Beeren from DCE. “Anyone can sort out their affairs on a central platform, so everything is much easier to oversee.”

In addition to the DCE Dashboard, the internal DCE Corps Network and the DCE Judges Network will continue to exist.

An Austrian drumline will be taking part in the German Open in Hamelin this year. So far, six participants have signed up for the German drum corps event.

The Drumline MDC from Austria will make the trip to Hamelin to participate in the German Open on Saturday 7th September. There is a second newcomer to the Premier Class: Spirit of Music. So far, a total of six corps are participating in the contest. In addition to the above groups, Heartliner, Starriders (Premier Class), Red Stars (Concert Class) and Starriders Cadets (Junior Class) are also taking part.

For the first time at the German Open, there will be a 'Prep Class'. Corps that want to get a taste of the drum corps competition can start in this class without having to compete with the 'big boys' straight away. The German Open is part of the European Music Games.

With the tickets for the 2013 DCUK British Drum Corps Championships having just gone on sale, Drum Corps United Kingdom has made all the 2012 Finals performances available free to view for the next few weeks.

This service is being used to test how effective any web streaming of Corps performances is whilst we look at the options how we make our archive more accessible. DCUK TV can be found at www.dcuk.org.uk/about/dcuktv.html. Although this is still a work in progress, feedback on the service is appreciated.

This Friday, twelve members of the Black Knights Drum & Bugle Corps will be setting off on a three day, 82 mile (132 km) sponsored walk to raise funds for the Black Knights Performing Arts Group.

Each day the members will walk 27.3 miles (44 km), the equivalent of a marathon, starting from their HQ in Northfleet, Kent on the Friday and finishing at Eastbourne, East Sussex on Sunday evening. The route taken will be the historic Weald Walkway through Kent and East Sussex and the group will spend the evenings camping enroute.

Funds raised during the event will go towards improving facilities and equipment for the cadet section of Black Knights. If you would like to support the members on their three day walk by sponsoring a small amount then this can be done via their Just Giving charity page www.justgiving.com/blackknightsuk.

The box office for the 34th British Drum Corps Championships, being held on Saturday 21st September, will be opening on Monday 22nd July 2013 at 8am. Tickets will be available from £10.00.

The new venue for the DCUK Championships is the Select Security Stadium in Widnes - Cheshire. The Gold Seating Area is the centre section of the stand. Tickets for the Gold Seating Area will be availeble for £16.00. Tickets for the Silver Seating Area will be £13.00, and for the Bronze Seating Area £10.00. Access to the Bronze Seating Areais is free for children under 13 years of age.

Orders will be able to be placed online using PayPal or by post using the Order Form which will be available to download via the DCUK website.

Brian Yothers leaves Drum Corps Europe. He has been the Adjudication Manager for DCE in the last two years. Brian will return to the United States.

Brian is moving to Washington DC because his husband is going to work for the World Bank there. Brian will continue to do the same job he does now for Cisco, but he will do it from there. Because of the distance, he decided to give up his role as Adjudication Manager in the European drum corps organisation.

"It was great to see DCE growing in so many ways", Brian said. "The quality of the corps, but also quality of the organisation and of the judges. That is what it's all about. There were challenging times of course, but the team support within the organisation and judging community made each contest something I looked forward to. I will certainly follow the progress within DCE. Who knows after two years we may return and I would like to think I would become active again with the community."

He will be coming to the DCUK show in Stoke and to the DCN Championships. "After that I need to be in California for business meetings so I do not believe I will make it back for Kerkrade unfortunately", Brian said. "I do plan on watching the famous webcast of course!"

DCE would like to thank Brian for the fantastic work he has done for the organisation. Douglas Caldwell will be the ad interim Adjudication Manager until the end of the season.

The Company is increasing its lead on its competitors. The reigning European champions scored 77.10 points at the DCUK contest in Barnsley on Sunday. This puts the corps almost four points ahead of the number two of the Premier Class.

The Company’s score was up by more than three points from two weeks ago. The Kidsgrove Scouts came second with 73.25 but can now feel the Black Knights breathing down their necks (72.70). The Black Knights obtained a considerably higher score compared to the previous contest.

It was a well-attended Open Class (Premier Class) in Barnsley, with ten participants. There were also two junior corps competing. The Kidsgrove Scouts Juniors have the lead in the Junior Class. Scores can be found on the score page and at www.dcuk.org.uk.

Every month, we will be giving you an overview of the most watched drum corps news of the past month. Here is the list of the most popular news items from June 2013, including the Corps Page Top 5.

The Drumcorps.org.uk Hot News Top 5 from June 2013:

1. Belgian to Kidsgrove Scouts for the fourth year
Date: 6th June. Views: 596

2. A double victory for Jubal in Huizen
Date: 23rd June. Views: 502

3. Heartliner publish DCA tour schedule
Date: 2nd June. Views: 445

4. Two new corps to participate in 2013 DCI tour
Date: 10th June. Views: 444

5. New venue for DCUK British Drum Corps Championships
Date: 15th June. Views: 377

The Corps Page Top 5 from June 2013:

1. Jubal
2. The Company
3. Heartliner
4. Juliana
5. Spirit of 52

Juliana Drum & Bugle Corps from Middelburg - The Netherlands has won the 20th edition of ’Quando la banda passò World Bands Challenge’ in San Felice - Italy on 8th July 8th. The corps cored 86.25 points.

The Thai Band Satri Wat Rakhang from Bangkok ended in second place (81.50) and the Italian Mosson Drum & Bugle Corps from Cogollo became third (79.25). Thousands of spectators enjoyed the performances in a pleasant summer night. On the field were also the Marching Kids San Felice, the new school corps that was set up a few months ago involving 92 children of the local primary school.

The ‘junior marching project’ is supported and made possible by several institutions and corps, including international friends of the event, who helped and are helping San Felice after the big earthquake in May 2012. The official closing ceremony is scheduled on Sunday 14th July, with the show of Jubal Drum & Bugle Corps from Dordrecht, followed by ‘Marchin' Centro’, the parade through San Felice's streets and squares meant to encourage and wish the town a prompt and complete ‘restore of normality’.

‘Big, Loud & Live’, the live broadcast of the DCI World Championship Prelims, is set to return to cinemas nationwide, Thursday, 8th August. This year’s event will mark the 10th anniversary of the program, which has grown steadily since its debut in 2004.

Appearing in just 44 theaters in that first year, the event spread into a record-setting 609 theaters across 47 states in 2012. More than 43,000 attended last summer’s cinema event.

Over the past decade, fans have come to expect excitement from the theater event, and this year will be no exception, according to Shelly Maxwell, Executive Vice President of NCM Fathom Events. "DCI fans have displayed their loyalty and enthusiasm for this spectacular series over the last 10 years, and we guarantee another year of rousing, foot-stomping, hand-clapping drum corps entertainment", Maxwell said.

The broadcast is scheduled to last just over five hours, allowing time for fans to view the top 15 corps’ full World Championship Prelims performances, plus additional highlights from other corps that performed earlier in the day.

This year, the DCE European Championships once again have their own flashy logo to draw attention to the event. As in previous years, artist Peter Franken drew the design that will feature on the website, patches and champion’s flags.

Artist Peter Franken has long known how to make art to represent our beautiful activity. DCE is very pleased that he has been making the special Championships logo for many years now. The basic design has had another smashing makeover for the European Championships 2013.

You can see the result below. The logo is not just reserved for the winners of the Premier Class and Junior Class. Any visitor to the DCE Championships can purchase a patch, giving them a beautiful tangible reminder of the European drum corps event of the year.

Beatrix Drum & Bugle Corps was crowned as the European Champion in Rastede on Sunday. The corps from Hilversum - The Netherlands won the Rasteder Musiktage final on Sunday.

Beatrix managed to improve its score by almost two points on Sunday compared to Saturday, when the corps came second with 86.00 points. After Saturday's show, the members knew that they had to do better on Sunday. And they succeeded, resulting in a happy staff team, happy members, an enthusiastic audience and the title of 'European Open Champion'.

Second place went to Fanfarenzug des KSC Strausberg from Germany (85.88) and in third place was the Satriwatrakhang Marching Band from Thailand (84.63). Harpe Davids from The Netherlands managed to get fourth place with 81.13 points.

Spirit of 52, the winner of the qualifying round on Saturday, did not participate in the final. Many of the members worked for the organisation of the Rasteder Musiktage at the weekend and couldn’t perform on Sunday due to time constraints.

From this season Kevin Morgan, Master of Ceremonies at IMBA events will be covering IMBA events for the DCE Facebook page. He will post text, photo and video updates on competition days. Last Saturday Kevin did a pilot in Arklow where the first IMBA show of 2013 took place.

European drum corps and marching band fans were able to follow the IMBA event in Arklow live through Facebook. Kevin posted videos and photos on www.facebook.com/drumcorpseurope. "It has been exciting to watch the IMBA and drum corps in Ireland progress and grow over the years", Kevin said. "Since the IMBA developed a partnership with DCE a number of years ago, this progress has exploded and we are now in an exceptionally good time for banding in Ireland. I’m looking forward to working with DCE and give Europe an insight to what is happening at our competitions in Ireland."

Kevin has been interested and involved with marching bands since childhood. He started learning music with the Mullingar Town Band and progressed to the Celtic Crusaders marching unit. His first field show was in 1998 and he continued marching with the band through the next decade, playing in some of their most memorable shows like 'Grease' and 'Blues Brothers'. He played alto saxophone, and later bass drum, and travelled extensively with the band in Ireland, the UK, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and USA. During this time he also studied media, specialising in radio in Dublin, and worked for ten years on local FM radio and in recent years has worked with a number of original internet radio stations.

Kevin is still very much involved with marching bands in Ireland and continues to spend each summer as the regular master of ceremonies at IMBA events around the country: "I work with a tremendous group of people in Ireland, on and off the field. I’m delighted to be able to share a little bit of this exciting time with our friends in Europe."

Drum Corps Europe is delighted to have Kevin on board. "The pilot on Saturday was very succesful", DCE board member Marco Janssen said. "Kevin did a great job and we are looking forward to showing more of the developmentsin the Irish activity. The IMBA circuit has grown over the last years and that's what we want to show to as many people as possible. Thanks to Kevin, we are able to do so."

The Tallaght Youth Band Marching Vikings and Ravens Marching Showband are leading the IMBA competition. The first show of the Irish Marching Bands Association took place yesterday in a sunny Arklow.

The Tallaght Youth Band Marching Vikings won the Premier Class with a score of 51.65. The Celtic Crusaders became second (46.05), and the Inbhear Mór Marchers ended in third place (42.95). Ravens topped the Junior Class by scoring 60.25 points. The Tallaght Youth Band Cadets scored 45.40 which resulted in a second place. The Athlone Youth Marching Band ended third (38.40).

Video clips and photos by Kevin Morgan can be found on the IMBA Facebook page and the DCE Facebook page. The next IMBA show is scheduled on 4th August in Ballygar.

Winter Guard United Kingdom is in talks with other organisations to organise events outside of Britain next year. The organisation has presented the competition schedule for 2014.
 
For 2014, the British winter guard organisation has seven contests on the agenda. The season starts on the 12th of January in Stoke-on-Trent. The WGUK Championships will be held on  the 29th of March, also in Stoke-on-Trent.
 
But the ambitions of WGUK go beyond national borders. It is currently said to be in talks with partners in Ireland and on mainland Europe with a view of holding events there too. Last year, WGUK held an show with the IMBA in Ireland and a show with Indoor Percussion Europe in France.
 
The contest schedule for WGUK 2014 can be found here.

Fourteen-year-old Juliette from Kadoudal Drum & Bugle Corps (France) will be marching with the guard of World Class Corps Jersey Surf. It is the second time that a DCI corps welcomes a French member.

The young French girl left for the United States on the 14th of June for the first colour guard camp in New Jersey, and two weeks later she was on the contest field with other World Class corps including Phantom Regiment, Bluecoats and The Cadets.

Juliette was supported in her dream to march DCI by the staff of Kadoudal and by US and Canadian instructors. They guided Juliette in her artistic, mental and physical preparations for joining a World Class corps. Director Robert Jacobs from Jersey Surf gave Juliette the opportunity to be part of the corps.

It is the second time that France contributes to the DCI World Class. Nine years ago, Yohann Boscher, corps director of Kadoudal, marched with the Madison Scouts.

Corps and bands from all over the world are invited to participate in a big parade in Cork City in Ireland. The parade is part of the Cork Rebel week, a week-long event embracing international visitors.

Throughout 2013, Ireland is opening its arms to hundreds of thousands of friends and family from all over the world. Communities throughout Ireland are showcasing and sharing Irish culture, tradition, business, sport, fighting spirit and the Irish sense of fun.

The Cork Rebel Week in Cork, Ireland's largest county, is one of the flagship Gathering events. It includes the official International Marching Band Competition Parade on Saturday 19th October in Cork City.

Corps and bands that want to participate have to pay for their own travel expenses, but the rest will be taken care of by the organisation, including meals, accommodation, local transport, educational activities and social activities from 16th to 20th October.

More information can be obtained by emailing to louise@corporate.ie.

The Company has retained its lead in the second contest of Drum Corps United Kingdom in Woking yesterday. The biggest jump in score, however, was made ​​by the Kidsgrove Scouts.

With a score of 73.90, The Company improved its score by more than 2.5 points from the contest in Bradford two weeks ago. However, the Kidsgrove Scouts achieved an even bigger improvement of nearly 5.5 points are now solidly in second place with 72.35 points. The Black Knights participated for the first time this season today and it scored 68.05 points, putting them in third place.

Nine Open Class (Premier Class) corps appeared on the field before a crowded stand. Nexus came fourth (56.45), followed by Cadence (46.30), The Pacemakers (42.15) and Beeches (29.80). Four corps competed in the Junior Class. The Kidsgrove Scouts Juniors achieved the best score by far (49.05). The Black Knights Cadets came second (42.05), Cadence Juniors came third (40.70) and Cadence Cadets came fourth (30.85).

Scores can be found on the DCUK website. The next contest is next Saturday in Arklow - Ireland, which will be the start of the Irish competition season.