Empire Statesmen Performing At Buffalo Bills 50th Anniversary Celebrations
Rochester’s Empire Statesmen will take to the football field on July 30, not to compete as usual in a drum and bugle corps contest, but to help the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL) kick off the start of their 50th season.
The anniversary celebration will take place on the field at Growney Stadium at St. John Fisher College, where the Bills hold summer training camp before NFL regular season games begin in September. The Statesmen will perform a special concert routine for the audience at about 9 pm. Several thousand football fans are expected to attend.
The Statesmen celebrated their own anniversary at Growney Stadium last summer, with the Vince Bruni Preview of Champions drum and bugle corps contest attracting a capacity crowd to mark the 25th season of competition in International Corps Associates (ICA) and Drum Corps Associates (DCA) contests in the United States and Canada.
The Empire Statesmen have become well known to sports fans through performances for many professional events and teams over the years, including the Ryder Cup golf tournament, the Camping World Grand Prix road race at Watkins Glen before an audience of about 50,000, a World Cup soccer match in Europe, Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League, Rochester Red Wings of Triple-A minor league baseball and Rochester Rhinos of the United Soccer League (USL) First Division.
Spectators at many parades in the Rochester area and beyond are also familiar with the Empire Statesmen through their participation in such spectacles as the President’s Inaugural Parade, the Grand Festival Parade of the Burlington Sound of Music Festival, July 4 Independence Day parades in neighboring Irondequoit and Pittsford, the Rochester Lilac Festival Parade, and winter benefit concerts for schools and community organizations across western New York and Ontario, Canada. The corps also sponsors the Empire Cadets marching band for city and area youngsters, as a community outreach program.
The Empire Statesmen will follow up their performance at the Bills’ anniversary celebration by resuming their summer contest schedule on August 1 when they compete in the Parade of Champions in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The contest will feature the top six from last year’s DCA championship tournament: defending champion Reading Buccaneers, undefeated so far this season; Minnesota Brass, second; Empire Statesmen, third; Connecticut Hurricanes, fourth; Hawthorne Caballeros, fifth and Harrison, New Jersey Bushwackers, sixth.
The Empire Statesmen drum and bugle corps is a self-supporting independent group that represents the city of Rochester across the United States and Canada and as far abroad as Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and South America.
For more information about the Empire Statesmen organization, visit the website at: www.statesmen.org
