I had heard that drum and bugle corps was a bit of a thing in the Netherlands, and upon researching show schedules, I found that the Drum Corps Netherlands championships was scheduled to take place not too far from Delft at a date within my visit. Naturally, I went with bells on (and by bells, I mean a Santa Clara Vanguard t-shirt). I thought about bringing my corps jacket when I came to the Netherlands, but my suitcase was so stuffed that it seemed likely to crack my Vanguard Star, so I decided against it.

The championships was in Dordrecht on a Saturday evening, so I got on a train and exited at Dordrecht around 12:00. I planned to explore Dordrecht a bit and then walk over to the show. However, when I was on the train platform, I noticed that the next stop was Breda. A stranger I met in Utrecht told me that Breda was a really nice town to visit, so I spontaneously got back on the same train and took it to Breda. It happened to be Open Monument Day, which is a bit of a misnomer because it actually spans two days. I walked around the grounds by the Kasteel van Breda where one (maybe a few) of the William of Oranges once lived. Also, I saw a bunch of military artifacts in the Koningin Wilhelmina Paviljoen.

One of said artifacts was this:

…clearly a derivative of the Vanguard Star, made possible by time travel ;)

After tooling around Breda, I made my way to the show. I picked up the ticket which I purchased online, and it came in an envelope along with a wristband and a show patch. I’ve never gotten a patch as a spectator at a DCI show, so I thought that was a nice gesture. I’ll find a place for it on my corps jacket when I get home.

Mostly the event looked the same as a drum corps show in the U.S., but a few key differences stood out.

First, there was an outdoor bar behind the stadium.

This doesn’t happen in the U.S. since at the time of writing, the age-out limit happens to come quite close to minimum drinking age in the U.S. The only alcoholic beverages I’ve seen on tour (outside of free days) were those that the staff very carefully hid inside the staff buses (and even that was only when I was staying on a staff bus as a volunteer support staff member for a few days).

Second, most of the apparatuses to haul front ensemble equipment onto and off of the field were entirely human-powered. Perhaps this is because the corps here are all smaller than most DCI corps, or perhaps it’s because they’re more energy conscious. Maybe it’s both. You decide.

There were one or two exceptions.

Third, there was much crossing of sections. I saw a drum major play a trumpet solo, a front ensemble member perform an impressive rifle toss, and some hornline members join the color guard in a flag ensemble feature. The closest thing to this that I’ve seen in the U.S. is the Blue Kinghts hornline doing dance movement as they often do.

Fourth, European drum corps have old-timers performing since there is no age limit in Drum Corps Europe. I saw some exemplary folks mainly in the front ensemble. It turns out that there were more in the hornline and drumline, but this was hard to notice underneath their shakos / aussies. A doubly shocking sight for me was this gray-haired man smoking in uniform before warmup. Smoking, drinking, kissing, running, and swearing in uniform are all strictly taboo in most American junior corps and even high school marching bands, for that matter. People in the Netherlands are pretty permissive about smoking in general, which is especially annoying in outdoor seating areas at restaurants.

Fifth, the announcer said “[corps name], is your corps ready?” to each corps, just like they do in DCI, but for the Dutch corps, he said it in Dutch, while for corps from any other country (I think Germany was the only foreign country represented), he said it in English.

Finally, and maybe most significantly, European drum corps field shows take place on soccer stadiums – of course. At first, I was quite perplexed about how this was possible because while an American football field has standard yard lines and hash marks (though there is a different standard for hash mark placement on a pro football field versus a college field versus a high school field), soccer fields have almost no coordinates on the field! I thought perhaps the corps would do all their positioning by “guiding”, i.e. locating oneself strictly by one’s relation to the rest of the formation. After all, that’s what one has to do in winterguard and indoor percussion since they perform in indoor gyms. However, I imagine it doesn’t scale well. I haven’t tried it with a full field ensemble, but it sounds quite messy with more than 60 or so people on the field. Anyhow, it turns out what they do in European drum corps is tack down yard lines and hash marks onto the soccer field and essentially convert it into an American football field, but with soccer goals still on either end!

The shows were mostly so-so in my opinion. I admit to having very high standards when it comes to drum and bugle corps / marching band – that’s something that is so ingrained in my training that I can’t let it go easily. I was only expecting the last two performances to be anything I would consider good, but I was there for the experience of learning what European drum corps was like, so I was okay with that.

I got a few photos of Spirit of ’52 since they were particularly photogenic with their “jungle” theme. Also, after this point in the program, I focused more attention on the shows and less on taking photos.

Jong Holland Junioren had a humorously similar show title to that of the 2002 Santa Clara Vanguard.

Even European drum corps have Blue Devils clones. This is the Blue Diamonds, with uniforms that bear a striking resemblance to Blue Devils uniforms of a few years ago.

I saw Beatrix’ warming up during the break. Their color guard was quite impressive – by far the best color guard of the night. Their winterguard competes in the U.S. every couple of years. Percussion was okay too. Their hornline sounded so-so, but their marching technique and their vibe were not bad.

The last corps up was Jubal. They were clearly the home favorite, as the crowd went nuts when they took the field. They hail from Dordrecht, same place as the show location. Right before they entered, an old man asked (in Dutch – I translated only his gestures) if he could sit in the seat next to me. I told him “alstublieft” (please). Some heating elements ignited under the overhangs.

He said something in Dutch and pointed up at them. I asked if he spoke English. He was quite chatty, and he asked me where I was from and why I came and all that. Also, he mentioned that he was the director of Jubal for 27 years! His name is Vim or Vin or something like that – I must do some research. He was really proud to tell me about his son and his son in law who both marched in the Madison Scouts. I told him that I had a lot of respect for the Madison Scouts and that they came once to the Vanguard birthday dinner – they sang their corps song for us, and we played ours for them, then we played something together (I don’t remember what that was actually). Anyway, I remember them being quite nice, and in general, the corps is not concerned about winning championships but is concerned about having values, which is something I have always appreciated about them.

He asked what I knew about Jubal, and I said “not very much, but I’m sure you can tell me a lot!” I told him that I knew about someone Dutch who marched in the Vanguard a few years after I aged out. It was a complete crapshoot, but I mentioned his name.

“Frank Wienen? Yes, he is involved on the staff! I will introduce you to him!”

Also, the former director mentioned that after the show, there was a party at the Jubal headquarters and that I was invited.

“Great, I’d love to go!”

Later, I took a group selfie with the fellow.

Jubal was quite good. They were the only corps that had respectable horn manuals and two-count turns. I learned later that Frank was the visual designer and visual caption head for Jubal, which explains that. They had some 7/8 time signature, during which the hornline did a quite nice unison crab-walk. The hornline was the cleanest of the night, and they had a piercing bright sound, similar to that of the Phantom Regiment – I prefer a darker sound since that’s how I was trained, but they did their style consistently, and it worked for them. Most importantly, their show was well-designed, and on the whole, they really performed – I had goosebumps during much of said performance.

The awards ceremony featured a full-corps retreat (where every member of every corps is on the field). Corps exited one-by-one in reverse order of their placement. As each corps marched off, they walked down the field past all the others remaining, and the drum majors and guard captains from each remaining corps saluted the departing corps. Some corps played exit music while they marched off. Some stopped and played a short exit tune in place, which was quite entertaining.

Jubal won the overall Dutch championship, as well as all captions for which they were eligible (they don’t have an “auxiliary”, so they didn’t win high auxiliary). So they played the encore performance. It started just like a DCI encore. They took off their shakos and placed them on the ground, and they formed an arc and played their corps song: a quite nice arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (which also happens to be the corps song of The Cavaliers).

Here’s a video from the actual performance that night!

After the corps song, they marched their entire field show just like normal, but with no shakos – this is something I’ve never seen done in DCI – usually the hornline and percussion will just play their music while standing in place. I was standing right at the front gate because I was expecting an only-musical performance without much to see from a higher viewpoint. But watching from ground level is also the best way to fully absorb the energy of the performance, and for the encore performance, Jubal really outdid themselves. I cupped my hands behind my ears to take in the full effect of the hornline when they played at key moments. At the end, I noticed that the Jubal alumnus next to me had tears streaming down his face. The former director came up next to me and asked what I thought.

I had to shift myself out of pure awe in order to be able to have a conversation again, and I said, “That was good, very good. Umm, I’m surprised they marched the entire encore – they don’t do that in DCI.”

The former director drove me to the Jubal headquarters. It was the first time I’d ridden in a car in the Netherlands. The corps headquarters was by far the swankiest drum corps headquarters I’d ever seen. The standard in the U.S. is a converted VFW hall or an abandoned school campus. This place had a full bar / lounge that looked like a classy regular bar, a history room, and a rehearsal room for each instrument with triple-pane (or maybe quadruple-pane) windows to contain the noise and keep the neighbors from complaining. I would have taken more photos, but the rehearsal rooms had people changing in them drum corps style, which means in front of everyone. Said former director bought me a beer and gave me a quick tour.

Anyhow, I met Frank, the guy who marched Vanguard in 2006, and we talked about Vanguard a bit. Turns out he lived in the bay area with a few guys who were rookies in 2003 (my last year). They’re folks I haven’t seen or heard from in years – the last time was at my boy, Chris’s wedding, but I would still consider them close friends, and I know that the next time I see them, we will get right back to where we left off.

Also, I met a few other corps members and alumni. Everyone was incredibly welcoming, and they all knew about (and seemed to have high regard for) the Vanguard, so they were excited to meet me. I met the current director who is in his 40s and also marches in the hornline and drives a truck for the Blue Devils every summer. I learned that Jubal did a U.S. tour in 2011, but it was a rough transition year for them. However, they’re in a much better place now, and they are going to the U.S. again in 2015. They will be at the Allentown, PA show, which is the biggest show on the East Coast, so I may get to see them there!

The director arranged a car ride back to Delft for me – with some corps members who live in Rijswijk (the town just north of Delft). I took them up on that when we were all ready to leave, which was simultaneously at about 1:00.

So the Drum Corps Netherlands circuit is over, but the Drum Corps Europe Championships is in two weeks in a town called Kerkrade. It’s technically in the Netherlands, but just barely. I looked it up a while back, and I found it to be a 4+ hour trip on public transit. The British corps will be there, and folks at Jubal mentioned that some of them are quite good. Jubal won the Drum Corps Europe championship in 2013, but they’re not sure about where they line up now, since they haven’t faced any of the British corps yet (and the scores in the UK tend to be higher than those in the Netherlands), so it’s anyone’s guess at this point. A bunch of people in the Jubal after party said I should go. I hadn’t been planning on it before since it was so far away, while the Drum Corps Netherlands Championships was within a reasonable distance. Frank mentioned he had a spare ticket for me to Drum Corps Europe Championships, and he could probably arrange a ride for me with a staff member who lives in Leiden (which is kind of near Delft). We exchanged contact information, and I fully intend to take him up on the combined offer.

Also, a drummer I met jokingly told me that there was a trumpet spot open (which was true) and that I should join for the last two weeks of the season.