International Champions at DCE Championships

Beatrix (Netherlands), Distant Thunder (United Kingdom), Strangnas (Sweden), Rythm Stars (Netherlands) and Jong Beatrix (Netherlands) are the new Drum Corps Europe Champions 2004. More than 2000 people attended the DCE Finals in The Hague on September 25.

Excitement, thrill, a wonderful crowd and entertainment - a lot of entertainment. It was all there at the DCE Championships 2004. In Prelims Jubal from Dordrecht and Beatrix from Hilversum had a very close finish. Beatrix stayed ahead of Jubal with only one tenth of a point. Beatrix was able to top all captions in the evening (except for the Best Visual caption) and won the Open Class (85.6), with Jubal as the runner up (83.6).


The Kidsgrove Scouts from Kidsgrove ended up third with their breath taking 'Pirates of the Caribbean' show. Wölper Löwen (Neustadt), Northern Star (Leeds), Juliana (Middelburg) and Starriders (Bad Münder) ended within a margin of five points from eachother. They all had very entertaining programs that got the crowd in the stand on their feet.

Federatieband from The Hague (8th in Prelims), Fidele Vogelsanger from Gevelsberg (9th in Prelims) and Die Tambourijnen from Eindhoven (10th place in Prelims) had an exciting competition, and swapped places in Finals, with Tambourijnen passing the other two corps.


Two corps didn't make it to Finals: DAP from Apeldoorn and Showband Rastede from Rastede. Both had avery entertaining show and they have lot of potential to grow further in the future.

In A-Class there were two winners. Distant Thunder from Sharnbrook and Strangnas from Sweden. The audience loved both. Distant Thunder's 'Phantom of The Opera' was very recognizable for the audience and was performed very well. Strangnas had a strong musical program with pieces like 'Theme from The Rock' and 'Splanky'. It's great to see drum corps is present in Sweden, although Strangnas is the only drum & bugle corps in this country. Jeugdshowband JFB (The Hague) became third. Although they have a lot of very young (Cadet Class aged) members, JFB is a strong A-Class corps. Red Stars (Hann. Münden) and Midsomer Norton Marching Brass (Bath) became 4th and 5th. Midsomer Norton took the Best Guard award!

Rhythm Stars from The Netherlands became overall winner in the Marching Percussion Class. There was a margin of almost 16 points between them and the runner up, the Blue Lions from Lens. Göteborg Drum Corps came all the way from Sweden to enter the Marching Percussion Class in The Hague and became 4th, with music pieces like 'In the Stone' and 'A Night in Tunesia'. Showcorps Hare Davids (Zoetermeer) ended 5th. They played a combination of tunes from the Tarzan and Lion King movies.


With five participant there was a big competition in the Cadet Class. Jong Beatrix (Hilversum) took top honors and won all captions except Best Percussion. This award is shared with runner up Johan Friso (Middelburg). It always great to see the kids working so hard to put their best show on the field. Jong Jubal (Dordrecht) were close behind Johan Friso and ended in third place. Jong Avalance (Vlaardingen) and Pegasus (Havant/Waterlooville) ended on 4th an 5th place. They did a wonderful job to entertain the audience.

The DCE Championships 2004 have become a real European competition with corps from the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and France. With a brilliant atmosphere, a high standard of performances, almost 30 participating corps and a wonderful crowd, drum corps is definitely growing in Europe.