First Ever Class A Regular Season Show

The Brigadiers are pleased to announce that the August 2nd show in Waterloo, NY will be promoted as a Class A Regional event. Class A will have its own 1st through 3rd awards for the Pageant of Drums this year.

Competing Class A Corps
Excelsior
Carolina Gold
Fusion Core
White Sabers
Grenadiers

Competing Open Class Corps
Rochester Crusaders
Empire Statesmen
Brigadiers

New Stadium Info Syracuse Aug. 2nd

The August 2nd Pageant of Drums show originally scheduled for N. Syracuse HS, will now be held at Waterloo High School stadium. The show will start at 7PM.

Address for the Show:

Waterloo High School
96 Stark StreetWaterloo, NY 13165

Tickets for Major Shows

In case you didn't notice on the home page, you can now order tickets on line - not only for the DCA Championship Labor Day Weekend, but also for the Parade of Champions August 16th in Scranton, PA and Mission Drums in Lawrence, MA on July 26th. Plenty of excellent seats remain. Order now while they're still available.

July 12th & Aug 2nd Show Changes

DCA has been informed by the contest sponsor that due to loss of the stadium and inability to locate a suitable replacement location, the July 12th contest scheduled for Buffalo, NY has been cancelled. Due to the late date of the cancellation, it will not be replaced. DCA and the Brigadiers sends it's regrets to all of our fans in the area, but this seemed to be the only possible decision.

We encourage those in the region to consider attending the July 5th show in Rochester at St. John Fisher College and the Brigadier's August 2nd Pageant of Drums which is being moved from North Syracuse to Waterloo, NY. Details on the location will be released soon. Also, the Brigadiers are pleased to announce the addition of Carolina Gold to the August 2nd line up.

This change was necessary due to numerous High Schools around the country forbidding use of their artificial turf stadiums until the safety of these fields can be confirmed. The government advised that unsafe lead levels have been found in specific stadiums that were produced from used tires. North Syracuse was one of them.

DCA To Increase Number of Class A Finalists

We here at Drum Corps Associates are thrilled to announce the expansion of our Class A Final competition this year! For the first time ever, there will be FOUR finalists competing for the Class A crown, up from three in previous years. Our Executive Board made the decision to add another corps to finals in Class A, in response to the explosive growth in that category over the last several years. The pre-contest ceremonies will be shortened a bit to accommodate the extra time needed, and we expect the first finalist to hit the field at 5:30 PM sharp on Sunday, August 31, 2008.

Class A corps are limited in size to 65 performers (not including drum majors and National Color Party). DCA rules allow for the top 3 declared Class A corps, not finishing in the top 10, to compete at the Sunday evening Finals Competition for the Class A Championship. For the 44th Annual Championship at Paetec Park in Rochester, NY Labor Day Weekend, there will be 4 corps moving on to Championship Competition. The winner of the Mini-Corps Championship from Friday night’s Mini-Corps Competition will also exhibit at the Sunday Finals following the last competing corps. This means that a total of 15 corps will perform at the Championship Finals on Sunday evening, August 31st at Paetec Park Rochester, NY – truly the “don’t miss” event of the DCA drum corps season.

The preliminary competition on Saturday, August 30 may break the record for the largest number of corps competing in our 44-year history! Visit www.dcacorps.org/2008 for tickets.

DCA Class A Competitors Set

The following corps have declared Class A Status and will be eligible to compete for a spot in the DCA Championship Finals in Rochester, NY on August 31st. The 3 highest scoring declared Class A corps (not achieving a spot in the top 10) will compete that evening for the Class A Championship Title - joining the top 10 highest scoring corps competing for the Open Class Championship.

Grenadiers - Kingston ONT
Govenaires - St. Peter MN
SoCal Dream - Irvine CA
Fusion Core - Morris County NJ
Alliance - Atlanta GA
Chops, Inc. - Minneapolis MN
Frontier - Denton TX
Gulf Coast Sound - Houston TX
White Sabers - Dansville NY
Lakeshoremen - Troy MI
Sun Devils - Kissimmee FL
Carolina Gold - Rocky Mount NC
Excelsior - Albany NY
Grenadiers - Kingston ONT
Shenandoah Sound - Sterling VA
Cincinatti Tradition - Cincinatti OH****
Derby City Knights - Louisville KY****

**** These corps have declared Class A but have yet to be evaluated

Note: This edit adds Kingston Grenadiers who were erroneously left off the original list.