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Stadium security


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As far as I know we were never told to keep this off of social media, so yes. As far as I know every corps had to go through this procedure. I know for a fact my corps did and this did not happen in 2015.

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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.

I would submit that security for a regular stadium event and security for a Presidential appearance are VASTLY different.

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I would submit that security for a regular stadium event and security for a Presidential appearance are VASTLY different.

agreed. For one, the Presidential appearance had only a thousand or so folks at best, Liberty Island only a few hundred.

The stadium events have 90K in Meadowlands size, 37K for DCI finals at best.

But I know your point, BDer.

When Garfield Cadets appear, nothing is to be taken for granted and all should be concerned about Devilish behavior from left coast fringe... :-p

And supposedly some blue tarp couldn't make it past security to get into Atlanta stadium this summer.

Edited by xandandl
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The procedures that were given to you for the BOA show at the dome are EXACTLY what we went through as performing corps this last summer. For spectators entering, they did not have staff enough to handle the crowd in a timely matter, and for performers and staff it was even more in depth than for spectators (I entered the stadium both ways at different times for the show)

Communication between groups of security staff was also #### poor and I got very short with a supervisor at one point. Had several security staff persons telling me conflicting instructions and not relenting, despite having an all access pass. Very frustrating!

Hope ya have a good show and definitely have all your ducks lined up heading to performance. If you don't need it, don't take it.

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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.

The HS band I teach did an event for President Bush a few years back at Trenton-Mercer Airport in NJ, and it was the same. We had to drop off our equipment truck the day before.

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Are these the normal procedures or security got tighter for any reason?

Work at a Military Base, can tell if crap hit the fan overnight if the security level goes up (posted on a sign at the gate). That gets your blood pressure up if something happened overnight and you didn't catch the morning news.

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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I think some corps tell their members to stay away from DCP.

We've had a few incidents over the years where thoroughly decent current marching members have had the DCP wolves on their tails for posting innocuous comments in threads... Bloocontraguy springs to mind but there have been several others.

As for the stadium security issue, get used to it esp. in larger venues e.g. NFL stadiums. It's here to stay.

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I think some corps tell their members to stay away from DCP.

Can you blame them?

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As far as I know, no corps currently have a policy explicitly prohibiting using DCP, given that such a policy would be impossible to enforce. However, it is generally discouraged, and most corps DO have a policy restricting members' use of social media while associated with the corps. This generally consists of a) Not saying things to make the corps look bad- it's generally assumed that if you're bashing your own corps on a public forum, you don't really want to be there, and if you're saying stupid stuff about other corps, or even some non-drum corps topics if your profile image is a picture of you in uniform, you hurt the corps' image to potential new members; and b) Not causing a panic- for example, if there's a storm and the bus has to stop at a Walmart for an hour, don't discuss it while it's happening, as concerned parents with limited information can quickly turn "Sheltering at Walmart from this storm" to "Tornado kills 150." Given DCP's image, posting here while identifying yourself as a member of a particular corps might fall under part a, and even if it wouldn't, members generally avoid it just in case. I'm a current member, though for the stated reasons I won't say where, and when I mentioned something I'd seen on here to another corps member, their response, and I quote, "Why the hell do you use that site?" There's some actual worthwhile stuff on here- for example, a discussion of venue security policies- but what it's generally known for is "G BUGLES ARE THE BEST! ELECTRONICS SUCK! GET OFF MY LAWN!" and unfortunately, that's what quite a bit of it is.

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