This year, the DCE European Championships can count on strong support from their sponsors. They're not unknown either! Big names, such as Majestic, Show and Marching Music and the Repair Workshop, will all have stalls in Kerkrade and introduce themselves below.

For years, Drum Corps Europe has offered a text (SMS) service, allowing drum corps fans to access the scores directly on their mobile during the DCE European Championships. There is now a new variant to this successful service: the scores are now also published on Twitter.

The 2010 IMBA season drew to a successful close on Saturday night (11th Sept) with 8 bands competing in the Irish Championships which were hosted in Athlone Football Stadium in Co.Westmeath - Ireland.

Juliana Drum & Bugle Corps are the new Dutch champions in the Premier Class. Saturday, the corps from Middelburg beat their fierce rivals, Jubal from Dordrecht and Beatrix from Hilversum. And, as if that wasn't enough, Johan Friso won the Dutch Junior Class title in the FC Dordrecht stadium and brought it to Middelburg.

The absence from the drum corps competition does not appear to have affected Wölper Löwen from Neustadt, Germany. Theatre performances are scheduled for the upcoming months.

Drum Corps Europe will once again promote the DCE European Championships through a television commercial this year. The commercial will be shown a total of 42 times on the popular L1 channel in the province of Limburg - The Netherlands where the DCE Championships are held.

Hal Fitzgerald, a world renowned recording and mixing engineer, today launched Drums Across Texas, a podcast series featuring parking lot recordings of the world's best drum lines including The Cavaliers, Santa Clara Vanguard/ and Phantom Regiment. Texas High School and College lines will also be featured.

The Kidsgrove Scouts finished in sixth place in the Open Class of the Drum Corps Associates Championships. This meant the British corps retained the place they had already secured in the Prelims. The Buccaneers can add another title to the series they already have.

Last Saturday, Starriders Drum & Bugle Corps won the German Open in Hameln. With a comfortable lead, the title of the Premier Class went to the corps from Bad Münder.

The Kidsgrove Scouts have reached the DCA Open Class Finals. The British corps came sixth last night out of the 11 corps competing at the DCA Open Class Prelims in Rochester.

Paul Rennick has been appointed as percussion arranger and percussion caption manager at Santa Clara Vanguard, effective immediately. Rennick has been a dominant force in marching percussion for more than a decade, having recently won the Drum Corps International Fred Sanford award for percussion performance for the third time in five years with the Phantom Regiment.

The Bluehawks from Clonmel remain at the top of the Irish Marching Bands Association competition. Sunday, the corps scored 60.3 points in the Premier Class.

Yesterday, the Kidsgrove Scouts entered the Drum Corps Associates contest in Bridgeport. The corps ended in 4th place, less than three points below the Bushwackers. The Hurricanes topped the show.

The summer holidays are almost over and the first contest of the second part of the competition season is underway. The European Music Games will continue on Sunday with a contest in the Irish town of Clonmel.

The Buccaneers kept their lead in the Drum Corps Associates competition Saturday in Scranton. The Empire Statesmen, who are currently at number two, were almost two points behind.

Tomorrow morning the Kidsgrove Scouts set off on their trip across the Atlantic to compete in the Drum Corps Associates World Championships in Rochester - New York.

After much deliberation, anticipation, and dozens upon dozens of inquiries, the Kingsmen Starcorps Inc. Board of Directors and the Kingsmen staff has announced the activation and return to drum corps competition, the Kingsmen Drum and Bugle Corps of Anaheim - California for the 2011 musical season.

By unanimous consent of its board of directors, Daniel E. Acheson has been renewed as the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Drum Corps International, the Indianapolis based event marketing and management organisation providing leadership to competitive scholastic marching music ensembles around the world.

The 2010 World Championship Finals ended with the color gold for the Blue Devils. For the second year in a row, the corps won the gold medal in the World Class, concluding one of the most competitive Drum Corps International seasons in recent history.

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The members of Kidsgrove Scouts Drum & Bugle Corps will be blogging about their adventures in the United States. The club leaves in a few weeks to participate in the Drum Corps Associates competition.

After only two weeks of sales Drum Corps United Kingdom has already sold 50% of the Gold section tickets for the forthcoming DCUK Championships on Saturday 18th September.

The Bluecoats are gaining on the leading Blue Devils. In Allentown the Bluecoats saw a moderate increase in their scores, while the Blue Devils lost a few tenths. The difference is still more than one point.

The DCE iPhone app seems to be very popular. The app for Apple's popular smart phone, providing drum corps news in five languages, has been downloaded over 600 times since its release in January of this year.

All 23 World Class corps performed head-to-head in the same venue on the same day. On Saturday, July 31st at the DCI Atlanta Southeastern Championship Presented by Lake Oconee and Greene County, GA at the Georgia Dome, the Blue Devils (1st, 95.65) confidently established themselves as the corps to beat at the World Championship Finals in Indianapolis now less than two weeks away.

The Box Office for the 31st British Drum Corps Championships, being held on Saturday 18th September at Mansfield Town FC, is now open. Ticket prices range from £15.00 to free.

The sky was dark and grey as I arrived at Warrington's Victoria Park, but this wasn't going to detract from what promised to be the biggest DCUK show for some years with 13 corps in competition. As I walked across the car park there was a real buzz of excitement as the corps were warming up and I knew that even if it rained, we were in for a great day of drum corps.

Clay Wachholz will be joining the Kidsgrove Scouts brass team whilst the corps is on tour in the USA. "The Kidsgrove Scouts are extremely honoured and excited", corps director Rob Swindells says.

Drum Corps World photographer Harry Heidelmark took a large number of photos of all participating forces during the 2009 DCE European Championships in Kerkrade. The photos are grouped together in a photo gallery and can be ordered.

The second DCUK show of the 2010 season saw one Junior Class corps, 11 out the 13 Open Class corps and a guest band from Ireland in competition at Victoria Park in Warrington. After last years downpour, this year, whilst grey clouds were present during most of the day, luckily the corps only had a few spots of rain.

17th July 2010 saw a very windy Academy Brass Show at the Barnsley Football Club Training Ground, Barnsley in South Yorkshire. The Company took the gold in the Associates, closely followed by Kidsgrove Scouts (2nd place). The Black Knights (3rd) and Cheshire Cadets (4th) concluded the division.

Monday, July 12 marked the official end of the most recent Chase Community Giving Facebook campaign. As part of the programme, Chase awarded a grand prize of $250,000 to the charity with the most votes, $100,000 to four runner-ups, and $20,000 to the next 195 organizations. Eight DCI corps made the top 200 list and will receive $20,000 each.

The European score page of all certified DCE contests is now online. The scores of all contests so far have been brought together on one page.

Beatrix Drum & Bugle Corps has plans to tour the United States again in 2012. This is in line with the intention of the corps from Hilversum to travel to the �??drum corps mecca�?� every four years.

Philipp Schüssler from Germany hopes to bring home the DCI title this year with The Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps. Schüssler has been with The Cadets for three years, but the corps has not been lucky enough to be awarded the title in this time.

In the framework of the Licensed Partner agreement between Drum Corps Europe and World Band Competition in Malaysia, a three-day Judges College was been held in Kuala Lumpur in early June. Drum Corps World has published an in-depth article about the joint venture between Europe and Asia.

Boyle Marching Band from Boyle, Co. Roscommon, Ireland will be travelling to the UK to take part in the Drum Corps United Kingdom contest in Warrington on 18th July.

The 2010 Drum Corps United Kingdom got off great start at the Northwood Stadium in Stoke On Trent on Sunday 4th July with 9 Corps in competition. The Kidsgrove Scouts received the highest score in the European season so far: 71.00.

It's the clothing item to be seen in at this year's drum corps contests across Europe, including today at the DCUK contest in Stoke on Trent! The 2010 European Music Games Black T-Shirt has all the DCE Certified Contests across the UK, Holland, Ireland, Germany and Italy.

Jubal has also topped the second Drum Corps Netherlands contest in Huizen. Juliana and Beatrix follow at 0.75 and 1.4 points respectively. The contest took place in the sunny Wolfkamer sports park where DCN had a stand built on the artificial pitch because the S.V. (sports centre) Huizen is building a new grandstand on the main field.

Plans are well underway to bring back to the marching band/drum corps arena the band that was admired by so many: the Thurrock Marching Brass. Aimed at bringing something back for the youth of Thurrock, the effort will see many new youngsters that have never been involved in marching bands/drum corps before.

Yesterday, the Tallaght Youth Band won the Premier Class during the first contest of the Irish Marching Band Association in Tallaght (43.00). In the Junior Class, Ravens Marching Showband took top honours (53.90).

Drum Corps International has launched an iPhone app. The application provides the full DCI schedule as well as the individual tour schedules for each World Corps. Also included for each World Class corps is their 2010 repertoire.

Starriders Drum & Bugle Corps from Bad Münder will be taking a different approach to training courses after this season. In the winter months there will be less rehearsals, but these rehearsals will be intensified by the introduction of short camps.

"A steel band stood to one side, dancers smiled at the front, with brass and percussion following behind them; it was a surreal sight, the sort of thing I would expect to see at an American high-school football game." BBC's Paul Fletcher wrote a blog about the field bands he discovered during the World Cup in South Africa.

The World Band Championship (WBC) recently held a three day Judges College from in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The WBC Judges College which was conducted by the Director of Education of Drum Corp Europe (DCE), Bob Thomas from the USA, is aimed at producing the first batch of certified WBC Judges for its Championship Series. A total 13 candidates from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand attended the college which was also moderated by the Technical Director of WBC, Wil Bijl from Holland.