A ton of activity surrounded the third major camp weekend for The Academy Drum and Bugle Corps. The guard joined the brass and percussion sections again for the first time since January.

The weather was absolutely perfect for drum corps in Arizona this past weekend with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 70's allowing the corps to rehearse comfortably outside all day long.

Brass and Percussion members arrived on Friday at the corps' home training grounds, the Tempe Sports Complex with the goal of putting together a chunk of the opener in 24 hours. The percussion music was hot off the press, so they hit the ground running while the brass section, who had their music for a couple of weeks, spent the evening bringing the out of state members up to speed on their progress.

The Pit spent a bit of their time on Friday assembling several new Majestic vibes, marimbas, and xylophones from the Quantum Field Percussion instruments that were to be tested this weekend. Percussion Caption Head and Jupiter endorser Glen Crosby was pleased with the durability and the sound quality of the instruments that were presented this weekend. The drumline and brass sections will be receiving their new Jupiter Marching Brass and Mapex Marching Percussion instrument over the next 60 days.

Saturday looked a lot like any typical drum corps day with a lot of physical training, marching, music sectionals and the first music ensemble rehearsal on the new show music, Vienna Nights. The evening ended with the brass section performing 5 minutes of show for the percussionists to give them a feel for what kind of material they can expect in the weeks to come.

In addition to rehearsals for the members, Sunday was full of meetings for marketing committees, Southwest Corps Connection, Memorial Day Benefit Concert, The Academy Booster Organization and Parent meetings. Winter guard season still takes priority at this time of year, so the guard members in attendance were strictly of the local membership. They were treated to their own private performance of the show music Sunday evening as well.

The brass section got closer to its 72 members with the addition of 2 new members that came to audition for the first time. Two trumpet positions and one mellophone position still remain to be filled and guard auditions continue through May while the winter season comes to a close.

See a few pictures of the camp here:
Camp # 3 Pictures