Drums Across Cajun Field - III

We conclude our coverage of the competition in the Drums Across Cajun Field in Lafayette (LA) with photos of the performances of The Cadets of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Carolina Crown of Ft. Mill, South Carolina.

The Cadets, originally named the Holy Name Cadets when founded in 1934, is the oldest continually operating Division I group in Drum Corps International. The corps is known for pushing the artistic envelope of innovation and has won nine World Championships since 1983, becoming the first corps to win three consecutive titles in 1985. The Cadets have performed at a wide variety of highly public non-drum corps events; including the Statue of Liberty rededication in 1986 and the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta. The Cadets' theme was: "Side by Side: The Music of Samuel Barber."

The Cadets stored the rifles, flags, and other items in movable carts (shown in the photos below), which almost seemed to be part of the routine.

From mid-June to the first week in August, twenty-three World Class corps each compete in about 30-35 of the 100+ competitions around the country. Scheduling these competitions is coordinated by the national organization and presents 7-9 corps at each competition.

The Cadets score: 90.65

These events provide corps with the opportunity to tweak their performance leading up to the national competition involving all the corps. The event summarized here was held in late July, and, as you can tell by the scores, The Cadets finished second, 0.10 points behind the winner, Carolina Crown.

The Carolina Drum Corps Association was founded in 1988 with the desire of its founders to bring a drum corps to the Carolinas. Carolina Crown was founded the following year by that association. The corps won the Drum Corps International Division II World Championship in 1993. "E = mc² was the imaginative title of the Crown's performance.

The corps opened their powerful program with Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss and included, among others, Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass, The Abyss by Alan Silvestri, and concluded with The Dark Side of the Moon by Paul Lovatt-Cooper.

Carolina Crown score: 90.75

The summer competition concludes with the World Championship, held this year in Indianapolis in early August.

The three-day competition involves 36 corps (World Class, Open Class, and International Class). After the first day of competition, the field was reduced to 25; semifinal competition reduced the field to 12 corps. The finals produced the standings below.

1 CAROLINA CROWN (Ft. Mill, SC)  98.300
2 Blue Devils (Concord, CA)  98.050
3 THE CADETS (Allentown, PA)  96.950
4 Santa Clara Vanguard (Santa Clara, CA)  96.850
5 Bluecoats (N. Canton, OH)  93.350
6 Phantom Regiment (Rockford, IL)  93.250
7 The Cavaliers (Rosemont, IL)  90.500
8 Boston Crusaders (Boston, MA)  90.400
9 MADISON SCOUTS (Madison, WI)  90.100
10 Blue Knights (Denver, CO)  87.750
11 SPIRIT OF ATLANTA (Atlanta, GA)  86.400
12 BLUE STARS (La Crosse, WI)  85.450

We felt fortunate to have seen the eventual world champion on this July evening in Lafayette, Louisiana, and to have seen 5 (shown in all caps) of the 12 best corps in the world.