Greetings Directors,

In honor of the season, I'll be hosting a post-season parade. This parade also will be a kickoff to finals. Therefore, the parade will be held on the Wednesday before prelims, June 15th. Your drum corps or marching band may begin submitting an application starting today; please choose ONLY one group, and please use ONLY one account. The deadline for submission is Tuesday, June 14.

Rules:

The judges will be judging these seven captions: winds, percussion, music ensemble, colorguard, marching/lines, drum major/salute, and general effect. You have 1260 points to apply to any of these captions. You may not exceed 1260 points, or you will be disqualified.

When you submit your application, you must include your group name, ONE song, a YouTube link to your song, and your points.

Example:

Group: Marching Elite

Song: When the Saints Go Marching In

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17nXsv7o64k

Winds: 180

Percussion: 180

Music Ensemble: 180

Colorguard: 180

Marching/Lines: 180

Drum Major: 180

General Effect: 180

Total: 1260

In addition to the caption awards and top 3, I will choose my top three favorite songs and conduct a survey for best song selection.

I hope to see your band or drum corps there!

So ready for this, saw it in the forums a while back and always thought it would be cool

There is still plenty of time to submit your application if you would like your drum corps or your marching band to participate in the post season parade. The deadline for applications is Tuesday, June 14 :) Hopefully there are more participants.

How many so far?

Not many. Only 4 have submitted applications.

I'm in. I'll try to submit mine today.

Today is the last day to submit applications for the post-season parade. The parade is tomorrow.

I just submitted mine, I hope its not to late.

It's not too late. In fact, if anyone still wants to enter his or her group, you still have until midnight (central time) to submit an application. That's an hour from the time this message was posted.


Here are the participating bands and the order of performance:

Peachtree Cadet Marching Band

MN Tiger Band

Wenatchee HS GA Band

Platinum Regiment

Midland Valley Redcoats

Marching Knights

Lexington Legends

The Karkata Drum and Bugle Corps

K.K.M.B.

The parade just started, and everyone waves as FMA’s creator, Alex Yoder passes by. Following him are a few of FMA’s league founders and sponsors. In the distance, I see the first band approaching. It’s…

Peachtree Cadet Marching Band from Atlanta, Georgia.

Song: Entrance of the Gladiators - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WveEco2Rq2w

What a nice way to begin the parade. It’s such a classy, jazzy tune. They look and sound amazing. Their lines are perfect and not a single person is out of step. The guard routine is basic, but overall, this band’s performance is very effective and will be difficult to beat. I love the drum major salute. BRAVO!


Up next is…

MN Tiger Band from Newtown Square, PA

Song: Barnum and Bailey's Favorite - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reUcc2hjkQo

This song definitely gets you excited to be a part of the festivities. What’s that I hear? Low brass double tonguing? Nice! It’s a very fun, strong piece being performed quite well. Their performance is musically good and visually excellent. I appreciate a difficult parade routine for colorguard. I have a feeling that this march will make my top 3. Great Job!


MN is followed by the Wenatchee HS Golden Apple Band from Wenatchee, WA.

Song: Karn Evil9 - https://youtu.be/iwcdtFSNjHA

I’m not familiar with this tune, but I like it. Their percussion is strong. It’s definitely the strongest visual performance, so far. Well done, colorguard! Just when I thought, it couldn’t get any better. Wenatchee’s guard is killing it. Unfortunately, it’s not the strongest musical performance compared to the first two bands. Nevertheless, it’s a job well done.



Our first drum corps of the evening is Platinum Regiment from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Song: Black Granite - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKgP9Nfuuu4

What a powerful opening statement, just as I expect from a corps! They definitely let you know that they’re here and mean business. I find the composition very interesting and dynamic. It’s certainly a good marching piece. I appreciate the difficulty of this composition. What a catchy tune! Platinum Regiment already passed, and I’m still whistling and humming the melody. Thank you for entertaining me.


What’s that I see? It’s another drum corps. Specifically it’s Midland Valley Redcoats from
Marathon, Florida.

Song: No Blue Thing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8d7CJFSSyY

Beautiful song; I like that they chose something unique and not what I’d expect to listen to in a parade. Thanks for choosing a difficult piece to pull off. It would be cool to hear more from the percussion. These runs are definitely not easy for brass instruments. At this point, this is my favorite colorguard, who is probably the strongest of all the others I've seen. This performance is quite effective and the crowd seems to enjoy it.


Here comes an FMA powerhouse. It’s the Marching Knights from Portland, ME.

Song: Ex's and Ohs - https://youtu.be/TFMTAKIQsJM

The crowd is going nuts over this song! Everyone is singing and clapping to the beat. I’d say this was a great song choice. Unfortunately, compared to the others, it’s just too simple. Though, I like that they play to the crowd. I’d like to see more visuals. I wonder how much they rehearsed. There are some sloppy lines. Overall, they’re getting some major points for GE. Thank you, Marching Knights.


Holy ****! Here comes some high octane. Living up to their name, it’s the Lexington Legends from Lexington, Kentucky.

Song: VIP - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVHb3ooufI0

Everyone is dancing. All I can say is wow! Great sound! This is pure showmanship. Their colorguard is freaking amazing. How dare they fantastically execute several rifle and flag tosses against the wind. They’re unstoppable. This performance is nearly perfect. Their marching is clean. They’re flawlessly executing formations. This is what I call a celebration. Get out da way! They just may be the ones to beat all. I wonder if the judges will believe the same.


Are you ready to get funky? The Karkata Drum and Bugle Corps wants us to “Get Up Offa Thing” as they perform James Brown.

Song: Get Up Offa Thing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_uNMy20qAI

Who says you can’t use improvisation in a parade show? The crowd is losing their minds – in a good way. So far, it’s the most audience participation of the evening. I like seeing everyone have a good time. This is not your typical parade show. I like it, but I wonder what the judges will think of it.


Closing out the parade, we have K.K.M.B. from Havelock.

Song: Can't take my eyes off you - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ-dUvNIdIc

I really like this version. Ending the parade with a familiar song is a good idea. On the downside, there are some marching issues. The judges may believe that the guard routine is too simple, but thanks to their music performance, they definitely are making up for what they lack with their visual performance. They’re blowing our faces off! Excellent job, K.K.M.B.


The results will be announced tomorrow after the results of Prelims. I hope you enjoyed the parade as much as I did. Thanks to all who showed up to cheer on these awesome performers.

Wenatchee was very honored to participate in this parade. We hope the crowd liked our performance just as much as our performers enjoyed playing and learning the routine!

Glad the crowd was entertained, we have been looking forward to this performance for a while and it was a lot of fun for us too. :)

What an excellent write up!

Thank you. It's my pleasure writing for all of you.

Great write up! Glad to participate in the parade! Yes Marching Knights decided to have more fun with it and didn't get a lot of visual practice time as we are working too hard to win yet another World Title! :-P

This was awesome! I loved all of the song choices, can't wait to find out results!

I'm in class until 8:30 (9:30 eastern time). I'll post the results and awards when I get home. Sorry for creating so much suspense :)

I'm making my group stand at attention until the awards are posted. They need the practice.

Ladies and Gentlemen, here are the awards and results of season 52's post-season parade.

Best Winds: (tie) Lexington Legends & K.K.M.B.

Best Percussion: (tie) Lexington Legends & K.K.M.B.

Outstanding Music: (tie) Lexington Legends & K.K.M.B



Best Guard: Lexington Legends

Best Marching: (tie) Peachtree Cadet Marching Band & Wenatchee HS Golden Apple Band


Best Drum Major: Peachtree Cadet Marching Band



Spirit of FMA a.k.a (The Alex Yoder Award): The Karkata Drum and Bugle Corps



Receiving a participation award:


9th: Marching Knights - 53.625

8th: Wenatchee HS Golden Apple Band - 59.333

7th: K.K.M.B - 74.375

6th: Midland Valley Redcoats - 75.481


Receiving a trophy:

5th: The Karkata Drum and Bugle Corps - 75.769

4th: Platinum Regiment - 76.666

3rd: MN Tiger Band - 86.136

2nd: Peachtree Cadet Marching Band - 90.750

1st: Lexington Legends - 92.000



My Top 3 Music Picks:


(1) MN Tiger Band - Barnum and Bailey's Favorite

(2) Marching Knights - Ex's and Ohs

(3) K.K.M.B - Can't Take My Eyes off You

tie

(3) Platinum Regiment - Black Granite


(I couldn't decide between those two which song I liked more)

Nice results!

#winnersinlife