After three long years away from the championship stage, European marching music organizations celebrated a successful reunion at the 2022 European Drum Corps Championships, hosted Saturday at FC Dordrecht - Stadion Krommedijk/Riwal Hoogwerkers Stadion in The Netherlands.
The event, which featured 23 total competitive performances, awarded champions in three divisions: Jubal (Premier Class), Spirit of 52 (Concert Class) and Jong Jubal (Junior Class).
View all scores from the European Drum Corps Championship Finals
Spirit of 52 was also named champion of the European event’s newest addition, a contest under Drum Corps International’s DrumLine Battle heading. The German ensemble earned its DrumLine Battle title over a pair of other drum lines, Jubal and North Frisian Percussion Corps.
In Premier Class competition, The Netherlands’ Jubal took first place in Prelims and Finals events, earning a final score of 88.800 while winning caption awards for percussion, brass, music, visual and effect. Beeches (2nd, 85.400), the recently-crowned Drum Corps United Kingdom champions won the color guard caption award, and earned a top score in visual effect. Saturday’s win marks Jubal’s first European championship title since 2018.
Finals show 🔸 European Drum Corps Championships 🏆 #1 88.80 🧡 #Jubal #europeandrumcorpschampionships #europeandrumcorps #drumcorps #Dordrecht #marcingarts #foreverorange #jubal2022 #jubaldordrecht #percussion #zildjian #evansdrumheads #guard #flag #marching #majesticpercussion #mapexmarching #eeuwigoranje #marchdrumcorps #drumcorpslife #randallmayinternational
Posted by Jubal drum & bugle corps on Sunday, September 25, 2022
Blue Diamonds (3rd, 81.250) became the third group of the day to break 80 points, while Jong Holland (4th, 72.250) and Inbhear Mor (5th, 66.000) rounded out the Premier Class lineup.
“Like so many bands across the world, the past three years were a tough blow,” Inbhear Mor posted on Facebook. “Our goal for 2022 was to finally complete our production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ — originally planned for 2020 — and take it to the European Championships. We made it … We're back in business, and we love it.”
Spirit of 52 (1st, 80.600), the day’s Concert Class winner, held strong leads of exactly four points over its field of competitors on both the Prelims and Finals leaderboards. The Rastede, Germany-based ensemble adds the European honor after previously-winning the German Open this season.
“A perfect season finale, of which we are incredibly proud,” the group posted on its Facebook page after Saturday’s event.
A close race unfolded between second and third, as Beatrix (2nd, 76.600) fended off Brass and Drum Corps Kriftel (3rd, 76.300) by just three tenths of a point. The two were separated by 3.1 points in Prelims.
Beatrix earned top marks in music effect, Brass and Drum Corps Kriftel scored first in color guard, and all remaining captions were won by Spirit of 52.
In fifth and sixth places, Germany’s Storman Magic and France’s Blue Océane rounded out the Concert Class competition with scores of 64.500 and 48.400 respectively.
Junior Class corps had just one round of performances Saturday. Jong Jubal earned a resounding victory — the 12th European title in the corps’ history — scoring atop the trio of competitors by just over seven points while also topping the charts in all captions except color guard.
The day’s high Junior Class guard score went to Youngstars (2nd, 65.250), who fended off Jong Beatrix (3rd, 59.700) for second place.
Following the resounding conclusion of drum corps events overseas in Europe, the European drum corps community sets its sights on its next summer of performances, with next year’s championship events scheduled for September 30, 2023.