Grande Parade will step out at 6 p.m. next Saturday
The 2008 Salem Grande Parade steps out at 6 p.m. July 19. Parade units will line up on North Union Avenue and East Sixth Street with a possibility of Highland Avenue being utilized as well.
The parade will begin at the intersection of North Union Avenue and East State Street and travel west through downtown Salem. It will turn right onto North Ellsworth Avenue and continue to travel north and disband at the Second Street Plaza. The route is approximately a mile in length.
A special feature this year is a performance by the Erie Thunderbirds Drum and bugle Corps of Erie, Pa. The Thunderbirds were formed in Meadville, Pa., in 1956 as a parade corps. In 1968 joined with members of the Shoreliners Drum and Bugle Corps from North East Pennsylvania to form the Erie Thunderbirds. The corps quickly rose to the top, capturing several American Legion and RCA Championships. In 1976 and 1979 the Erie Thunderbirds placed eighth at the DCA World Championships, and maintained a placing in the top 10 into the early 80s, when in 1985, a lack of funding forced the corps to disband.
In the spring of 1991, several former members of the Erie Thunderbirds, along with members of other regional disbanded corps, met and decided to bring the drum corps tradition back to the city of Erie. Out of this meeting came the rebirth of the Erie Thunderbirds Drum and Bugle Corps.
In 1993, the Erie Thunderbirds returned to the DCA World Championships for the first time in nearly 10 years. Not as a field corps, but as a smaller delegation determined to win the first ever DCA Mini Corps Championship. Not only did the corps win that championship, but went on to place a strangle hold on the title that spanned four consecutive years.
The corps has since been successful in reclaiming the title in 1998, and again in 2002. In 1995, the Thunderbirds received the highest recorded score in the history of drum corps by receiving a 105.0 at the DCA Mini Corps Championships that year.
The Erie Thunderbirds 2008 repertoire includes: A tribute to the late great Maynard Ferguson featuring: "Blue Birdland" and "Theme from Shaft," "Jezebel," "An American Medley" featuring Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA." Donny Allen's arrangement of "Goldfinger, and close the show with a Wild West Medley including: "How the West was Won," "Hang 'Em High" and "The Magnificent Seven."
For additional information call the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce at 330-337-3473.
