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This is a little off topic.

The high school band I tech for will be competing at the Atlanta BOA show this coming weekend. In the packet of instructions that was sent to the directors there are instructions pertaining to security procedures that each group will have to go through AFTER warmups but before entering the stadium. These include things such as the students having to remove their uniform jackets, place their instruments on the ground, step away from the instruments and stand with their arms extended for them to be screened with metal detector wands and by bomb sniffing dogs. They will also be doing things like using mirrors to check the insides of the resonators of mallet instruments for nefarious materials. This will take so much time that there is now 40 minutes built into the schedule between the end of a band's warmup time and their scheduled performance time. With most high school groups this just about makes the warmup useless. BOA made sure to specify that this was not them requiring these security procedures, but the Georgia Dome itself.

So my question is, did competing drum corps members have to go through these same procedures at the Atlanta show in July? I understand screening people entering the spectator entrance, but putting competing bands through this security theater right before they're supposed to perform? Frankly it's ridiculous.

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So my question is, did competing drum corps members have to go through these same procedures at the Atlanta show in July? I understand screening people entering the spectator entrance, but putting competing bands through this security theater right before they're supposed to perform? Frankly it's ridiculous.

I doubt it since there was no discussion on DCP.

Edited by Ghost
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I went to Atlanta in 2014 and while I did not find their procedures unreasonable (as an attendee and not a marcher), they were stricter than Lucas Oil. Last summer I do recall some of my fellow camera buffs who attended the Atlsnta show stating that zoom lenses could only be a certain size and you had to have clear bags, no back packs, etc. Like Ghost, I don't recall any talk about the corps having to go through tightened security, but I do think Atlanta tends to be stricter than most venues. Also with the elections coming up and the country being so tense and divided, perhaps they are taking e dry precaution.

Edited by Tim K
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I was at Atlanta '16 as a spectator and no such practices seemed in play for that contest in July. However, spectators had to leave pocketbooks, camerabags, fanny packs etc. at a tent well away from the stadium; Transparent gallon baggies were given to each spectator to carry possessions and wallets through the wand-scanning at the stadium doors.

The instructions you post for Atlanta BOA seem quite similar to the actual experience of the Garfield Cadets when they were at Governor's Island and Liberty Island with President and Mrs. Reagan for Operation Sail and the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty. The Secret Service put their pointers down through every horn tube and every tube of all percussion instruments before the corps was allowed to board the ferries in Red Hook/Brooklyn for direct travel to each isle. The off-camera roof top sharpshooters made it one of the most pressured exhibition performances the corps ever had.

P.S.

Elsewhere on the Regiment thread, someone posted Broken Arrow's St. Louis performance which included the many motorized go carts they used. If your security protocols become norm at all major stadiums, imagine the hassle of going through each and every prop. Designers beware.

Edited by xandandl
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This is a little off topic.

The high school band I tech for will be competing at the Atlanta BOA show this coming weekend. In the packet of instructions that was sent to the directors there are instructions pertaining to security procedures that each group will have to go through AFTER warmups but before entering the stadium. These include things such as the students having to remove their uniform jackets, place their instruments on the ground, step away from the instruments and stand with their arms extended for them to be screened with metal detector wands and by bomb sniffing dogs. They will also be doing things like using mirrors to check the insides of the resonators of mallet instruments for nefarious materials. This will take so much time that there is now 40 minutes built into the schedule between the end of a band's warmup time and their scheduled performance time. With most high school groups this just about makes the warmup useless. BOA made sure to specify that this was not them requiring these security procedures, but the Georgia Dome itself.

So my question is, did competing drum corps members have to go through these same procedures at the Atlanta show in July? I understand screening people entering the spectator entrance, but putting competing bands through this security theater right before they're supposed to perform? Frankly it's ridiculous.

For our NJ State champs at Rutgers this past weekend, getting into the stadium to compete was not an issue.

After the show, when the kids changed to street clothes, they were not permitted to being any backpacks into the stadium.

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The fact that no current marching members have commented on this topic may indicate just how few current marching members actually read these forums.

At the 2016 Atlanta show EVERY performing member and ALL staff were subjected to the searches prior to their performance as outlined by the OP.

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The fact that no current marching members have commented on this topic may indicate just how few current marching members actually read these forums.

At the 2016 Atlanta show EVERY performing member and ALL staff were subjected to the searches prior to their performance as outlined by the OP.

Well, considering the post is barely 24 hours old, it was a beautiful weekend in the east, and most interested kids are using every available minute to prepare for auditions coming up in 26 days, I'd not make responses an accurate proxy for how many MM's read the Planet.

After all, this is just the 6th post in the thread, and five of these are from among the most ardent posters here. It's early.

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The instructions you post for Atlanta BOA seem quite similar to the actual experience of the Garfield Cadets when they were at Governor's Island and Liberty Island with President and Mrs. Reagan for Operation Sail and the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty. The Secret Service put their pointers down through every horn tube and every tube of all percussion instruments before the corps was allowed to board the ferries in Red Hook/Brooklyn for direct travel to each isle. The off-camera roof top sharpshooters made it one of the most pressured exhibition performances the corps ever had.

Spirit of Atlanta performed at an event attended by President Reagan back in the 80s, and as I recall, we had to take all of the instruments to the convention hall THE DAY BEFORE, and they were inspected and quarantined overnight until the next day's performance.

Getting back to the question at hand, I don't recall the Georgia Dome's security being quite as severe last July as the OP mentioned for this Saturday. I know that the GBI had bomb-sniffing dogs and agents with mirrors checking all of the vehicles that entered the "gold" parking deck, which is below ground right next to the Dome, and they checked all of the souvenir vehicles before they got to the loading dock area for load-in before the show. I didn't see them searching the members, at least not in the staging area just outside the corps entrance into the Dome.

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