Where is the strangest stadium

[blucru]

Great topic!

I had the privilege of performing with the Black Knights the State Fair in Springfield, Illinois. It was on a dirt track and we had to (somewhat!) compress the drill front to back. I can recall the staff matter of factly instructing us to cut any step size that moved you toward or away from the front sideline by half. All other step sizes remained the same.

Yikes!

It was a VFW sanctioned show (or was it American Legion?), so there was the obligatory chalk line inspection. Judges with rulers measuring the drummers' hair and taking mouthpieces off the horns and looking down them for any crude.

If memory serves, we entered into the performance area in the dark with spotlights on us.

The best part of any track show is proceeding through your company front toward a large fence with reinforced steel cabling. Probably the closet thing a corps can come to the chicken wire at Bob's Country Bunker.

The worst locale for us that season was on an unmowed, unlined field immediately adjacent to a tractor pull. The judges were seated in folding chairs supported by the forks of percariously placed forklift. Midway through the show, a jet-engine equipped tractor rained dirt onto the entire field and audience.

Gotta love Class A! We always got the best gigs!!!

I also got to march on the horse racing track BITD! By the time we were done with our show, our pants had that distinctive grayish/tan dirt color from the cuffs to the knees! There was a cement wall about 6 feet high along the front of the grandstands, the guy marching next to me bounced his baritone bell off that wall, I think the fans heard it at the top of the bleachers! A few days later, we did a show on a "field" that had been mowed that morning. We were either tripping in potholes or wading through 6 inch deep piles of grass! You are right!!! Class A always got the best gigs!!

[gsksun4]

There was a dump in Union City back in the 60's/70's. Don't know if it's still there, but there were always top corps competing there. If I remember correctly it was surrounded by a brick or block wall.

[ajlisko]

There was a dump in Union City back in the 60's/70's. Don't know if it's still there, but there were always top corps competing there. If I remember correctly it was surrounded by a brick or block wall.

HAHA ... that was "Little" Roosevelt Stadium on Kennedy Blvd ... the Union City "Free Show" on the 4th of July ... lots of great competitions there with the top corps ... not sure if it's standing anymore ... it had a tough enough time in the 60's when I marched there ... YIKES!!!

:-)

[sunbari1]

Frontier Field - Rochester - DCA Championships 1996 - anyone that was there knows what I mean. Crowd was another football field away at least

Springfield, Mass I think - Minor League baseball stadium - Jr. and Sr. Corps shows there - same deal as frontier except LOWER STANDS.

Someplace in CT in 1996 I think - DCA show where the crowd sat on the side of a hill and the judges stood on top of the hill.

I am sure there are more in my memory somewhere - but that is it for now!

Rich,

I know we did Bridgeport, Waterbury & Ansonia every year back then, but none of them fits the description. I think I remember doing a show in Derby one year in the 1990's, that may be the show I think you were thinking of. I can't remember that show at all expect that it was in a city that the Hurcs once called home.

[hurcwave]

Tom , Sounds Like Derby! the stands (or somewhat stands,) are built in the side of a hill... the judges are on top of the hill

Little Roosevelt Stadium.. I remember that place, it was a stone wall that surrounded it , if I remember, they had someone near an outfield wall that would open a gate to let the busses in so no one would get shot or fire bombed! yikes!

[sunbari1]

How could anyone forget Pittsfield, MA! Minor league baseball stadium, corps performed in the outfield a million miles away (It seemed) from the crowd. Our horn instructor actually told us to bring all dynamics up one dynamic level! In 1987 it rained and there was an inch of mud in the infield. I had to do a 4-count turn and my foot wouldn't move, it was stuck in the mud and I nearly lost my shoe! The only good thing was that it was always a great drum corps crowd.

Also, St. Jerome, QUE. The stadium was literally in the middle of a wheat farm!

Edited July 27, 2009 by sunbari1

[sunbari1]

Tom , Sounds Like Derby! the stands (or somewhat stands,) are built in the side of a hill... the judges are on top of the hill

Thanks Vic! I guess I purged that one from the old memory banks. LOL!!

Edited July 27, 2009 by sunbari1

[Jeff Zehner]

I recall playing a daytime concert *show* for our Veterans at the Coatesville VA Medical Center many years ago... We played A MARCHING SHOW in the medical center courtyard with orange cones for "reference" instead of lines. The space was too small, and there were even trees within the *imaginary* field. I recall being told just to go around the trees as needed.

Edited July 27, 2009 by Jeff Zehner

[gsksun4]

Thanks Vic! I guess I purged that one from the old memory banks. LOL!!

Wait! Wasn't Waterbury up on a high hill with the contest field down below. I remember the Fleetwood Records table at the top.

[cabsbari79]

Just thought of another one. The old Baltimore Memorial Stadium. I believe it was the Rebels show in 1984 or 1985. We hit a company front and the end of the horn line was up against the outfield wall.