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Reviving this thread to post a segment of Rand (MAASIN founder)'s statement regarding the end of the Cadets. Thank you DCAF for giving them a platform to say the right thing to a wider audience. Emphases, bold, italics, are mine: "You don't also get to claim simultaneously all the history and victory of the Cadets while washing your hands clean of the abuse that happened. The announcement statement from the Cadets regarding the corps folding essentially says that the corps folded because of the recent lawsuit from an alum who was sexually assaulted in the 80s. Blaming the recent lawsuit as the sole reason the organization folded, knowing the kind of environment survivors in marching arts deals with is deliberately opening up that person to further abuse. Further abuse because I was already seeing a bunch of disgusting, vitriolic comments directed at them before the corps folded, I can only imagine what those people are saying now. This sets us back. Many of us, obviously myself included, have diligently worked to make drum corps a safer place. We should be past the fear that reporting will make people think that you just want to see the organization fold, and you just want to see drum corps burn, and you'll be blamed for the uncaring actions of boards and admin. This statement from the Cadets remastered that fear in 4k for hundreds if not thousands of people. I'm also seeing a lot of people blame George Hopkins. I understand where they're coming from and obviously you all know I'm not going to be George Hopkins defender, but this isn't solely his fault either. In my opinion, looking at George as a the sole downfall of the Cadets is likely how the board landed in this situation. Removing George from the organization didn't solve the issues inherent to the organization because George was part of the problem, not the whole problem itself. The actual problem is that the Cadets organization became an environment that enabled abuse for many people, not just George. Obviously I've never been involved in the Cadets organization, so please take this with a grain of salt, but if any iteration of the Cadets truly cared about survivors as much as optics or finances, they would've handled this differently starting in 2018. Disclosing being a survivor of sexual violence is difficult. People have a lot of reasons for choosing to step forward or not to step forward. But for every survivor that stepped forward, there are probably at least as many that chose not to. Even more difficult is choosing to initiate a lawsuit over it. No one has a good time in a lawsuit and the courts are not kind to survivors. Choosing to sue or engaging with law enforcement often just retraumatizes people. From my experience as a sexual assault counselor, and also being on the MAASIN support team, lawsuits are usually a last resort. When someone gets to a lawsuit, it's likely that the organization failed in a lot of steps in making amends first. Imagine in 2018 if people in our community, but especially in the Cadets board and admin, put as much effort into support survivors as they did in trying to distance themselves from George. Imagine the idea if we took a corps fundraiser seriously and we crowdfunded for counseling for survivors. Imagine if organizations facilitated gathering feedback from alum and survivors on what meaningful change in the organization looks like. Teasing out what's tradition and what's trauma can be difficult for some people but it's a worth endeavor to invest time into. I can't predict the future but if survivors are adequately supported, they are probably less likely to resort to suing to get their needs met. The lawsuit cannot be the only reason the organization folded. There's always more than what's the statement and we know that the economic conditions that we're living in present a huge challenge to drum corps across the board. The person at fault for an organization folding is never the survivor. This is a natural consequence of a board and admin that chose pride and profits over the people the organization is built on. ... Just remember, it was not the survivor who did this."

I will list my favorite years here in a minute. But first, want to mention something I have admired that may have been overlooked…. In high school, my marching band took a few cues from Cadets in how you approach the field, as well as how to stay disciplined and act at retreat. That said, can I say here about a tradition I always saw of them that I really loved? Coming onto the field in that sharp, disciplined look. The block, for many years, always impressed me. Also, standing at retreat in attention and parade rest. No clapping, yelling, or otherwise….disciplined, crisp, and classy. I also watched them at retreat in amazement of their discipline. But here is the thing- while being so strict and disciplined ….there was this completely ironic thing about them too. They were the most willing to be different and take risks. Let’s start with some of the basic things ….marching with the right foot first. If you also looked at their marching style, you will notice this thing they did with raising their elbows on angles, and marching backward on their heels during slow sections, ( instead of their toes). Then, of course, raising the bar as to how fast they could take their trademarked and owned mantra of music equals movement. Those parts of the the show in 1986 and 1987 where for 3-4 minutes straight the tempo is soaring at 150- 175 bpms, you feel like you are soaring with them. More recently, we saw them taking a risk to innovate voice. So much so, it polarized them for several years. In particular, a year where they would be further west then they had ever been for finals, and you hear how polarizing their show was in the crowd at their Finals performance. All this being said, I think it’s worth mentioning that these things have been influential to a lasting legacy. My favorite shows: 1. 1985 2. 1986 3. 1988 4. 1991 5. 1993 6. 1998

Last time the Cowboys were relevant, Microsoft was launching Windows 95.............in 1995. LMAO.

we are all older than we once were, but younger than we'll be

Actually, I think all of us aren’t as young as we used to be.

The sleeves of wind breaker's work well to store several beers or other drinks. A sleeve with elastic cuffs does it best.

The post was repeating a quote from MAASINs founder…. As for suing is often the last resort, same thing said about Spirits current troubles. Person reporting went to management and complaint was supposedly buried. As for attacks towards the accuser, saw them myself on Spirits own FB page

There was a HS band in northern Virginia in 2000s that had green uniforms identical to Cavaliers. Saw a different HS band in Hampton Roads that attempted a direct lift of the 007 show. Key word is attempted.

Why?

That’s not unusual

Maybe I’ll stuff water bottles in my clothes like the Animal House guys at the Food King.

paid attendance the last several years at finals has been 22,000ish. members, staff and VIP's are not counted in that number

They didn’t. I stood in line sweating for about 1.5 hours (no kidding) with my wife for two hot dogs and two bottles of water. Thought I was likely to get arrested defending my wife who wasn’t having the line cutting by the kids. I was never so glad to get to my seats. After that, my blood pressure, view, and show were terrific.

I just have to tell you what a huge fan I am of your '85 show. I marched Jr. Scouts in '85 and you guys were a complete bag of crap in June. But, by God, at finals you were just spectacular. To this day, that show is not only one of my favorite Regiment shows, it's one of my all time favorite shows, and THE show I consider to be the most underrated. You should be so proud of that show and what you all accomplished over that summer. It was so incredibly demanding and just marvelous. SUTA (even though I have no F'ing idea what that means)!

Spartans have always had a strong bashline...

Great show and venue. Went last year and only complaint was the concession situation. Blazing hot, hundreds of high school folks cutting line, and hours in line. Avoid the concession stands.

Unlike what my family would suggest, sometimes I actually do know what I am talking about.

Another Cavaliers show teaser clip released.

That’s not very tolerant. It’s sad that people can’t abide by live and let live.

Yes.. The 25th anniversary of WEST SIDE STORY was exciting while examining more of the WSS repertoire...That crazy ending sequence blew me away and the overall drill was classic Cadets..One of my favorites also

The last time I hit the Murfreesboro show, I sat next to a dude who was drinking hot coffee. He was sweating profusely.

Wouldn't it be nice to finally get a show at JMU? Big stadium with turf field right off of I-81 in Harrisonburg, VA and has hosted the high school marching band competition "Parade of Champions" for decades.

Thanks everyone for your input. Booked at Embassy Suites near the stadium. Sitting up high. Club level 303 row 5 /43. It’s about a four hour drive for us and we get an hour back. I’ve only done drive bys of Nashville so maybe we’ll go see the touristy stuff.

Every second of 1987 Appalachian Spring. That show plus SCV’s Russian Christmas Music (in the same year), especially the low brass at 2:26, hooked me on drum & bugle corps.

Guessing he's pretty happy with the gig in Rosemont these days.

Newark was the home of the Crossmen in the late 90's. Don't know what kind of an impression they left there but that area may be ripe for a show

The next thing, air conditioned shakos for DCI; wait... 😂

Cool, you can call an audible (Ok Dr Philosophy - is it an audible if you can’t hear it? This is a variation of the tree falling in forest question). LSU, on the other hand, developed air conditioned helmets (not making this up)

The neighbors in Trinidad would be "WHAT IS THIS LOUDNESS? YOU'RE A DEAF SCHOOL."

It would be cool if they could move it to SeaGull Stadiumin Salisbury only a little more than an hour from Annapolis and easy access to Philly from there. I am not sure if the stadium is big enough as it was designed primarily for lacrosse I donated a lot of money (for me ) to building this, so I have to promote it every chance I get.

Ok re stands; point of order that if you are driving I-85 from W-S, in Richmond turn east on I-64 & Williamsburg is about an hour. Closer than Annapolis. And if you go another 45 min there is Old Dominion & Christopher Newport. And in Richmond there is U of Richmond. Plus some big HS stadiums. It wouldn’t bother me to have a show within an hour or two vs 4-5 hrs to Annapolis

1997 is perhaps my favorite. I still remember being gobsmacked first time I saw it. The rest of DCI was standing still in comparison. OTOH Cadets shows I didn't like are few and far between.

Just putting it out there that 1996 is so underrated.

on a hot Sunday afternoon at Cedar Cliff HS in July 83, the Cadets changed everything i thought i knew about drum corps. a lot of the crowd were stunned, not fully understanding what they were seeing, but knowing it was good. i saw it as the way things were going to go. a year later, same stadium, WSS. it cemented everything i thought the year before. after the year, getting the VHS of 82, i saw where it all started. and 87 was the icing on the cake. if 89 had had the same ending for at least half the year, man they could have done damage

93 - Only experienced watching videos of this performance as I didn't know anything about drum corps until 1995. 96 - Guard was incredible. 97 - First time I'd ever seen Cadets live and first year I was able to march a DCI drum corps. I thought they were robots. 98 - This is the show that made me want to march there. Drill and marching were absolutely magnificent. 2000 - Obviously, since I marched this year. Funny thing is I HATED this show when we first came out, but it grew on me throughout the season. 2011 - A visual masterpiece. I am such a huge Cadets fan that they used to call me SuperCadet when I was in Cadets. I'm going to miss this corps deeply. The tears in my eyes as I type this can't express how much I hate this news.

Cadets 1993 - In the Springtime When Kings Go Off to War. I saw this show and knew this was where I wanted to march. Star was important that year, but I will gladly die on the hill of Cadets deserved to win. There has not been a show with this much physical demand since IMO. Half of this show was at 208 bpm. Watch the drumline when they put this section on the move - absolute insanity:

So many iconic shows in their history that will live on forever, but for selfish reasons, my favorite was 2023. I followed them closely all summer and got to see my son on the field in his rookie DCI season. When the last formation hit on Final night in Indy as a large part of the crowd erupted, there he stood. Right on the 50 yard line. Nobody knew at the time that it would be the last brass release of one of the most storied corps in the history of the activity. It brings a tear to my eye now just thinking about it. Yesterday was a very tough/emotional day for my son and our family. We'll all move on but as I told my son, he'll always have last summer and those memories. I'm eternally grateful that he had that opportunity. Thank you, Cadets. FHNSAB

Green Lives Matter.

And even that would still be on the tree if not for Tricia Nadolny.

meh

I hope I'm wrong ... but I have a bad feeling this corps is next....