Protest Music - How to Find a Marching Band in Vancouver BC Beyond HS and University

Travelers and residents have so many reasons to love Canada, and especially the Pacific Northwest with its unique cultures. Three more reasons are at least three marching bands for adults in Vancouver BC!

The Carnival Band is a successful marching band and community orchestra based in East Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. It is a group of buskers that also marches in parades for good causes to raise money for charity. The members of this band perform to support public causes such as wellness, peace, and other positive social movements as they follow their musical hobbies. It's a bit like the Salvation Army Band, but more modern and outspoken. It also recalls the Columbus Complaints Choir that we have in my city. Playing for good causes, these folks in Vancouver also seem to be having a grand time of it! -- The Carnival Band even dresses as clowns or to match the theme of an event. Must be a sort of take on Patch Adams.

Another marching band in Vancouver BC is the Vancouver Traveling Band, a group of 20 performers that is looking for new members.

The Band of the 15th Field Regiment is a military marching band that may be more familiar as a marching band to most viewers, given their uniforms and precision footwork. They actively recruit new members according to 1) military and 2) band requirements. Recruits must be:

• A Canadian Citizen
• A least 16 years old with parents' permission
• In possession of at lest six(6) Grade-10 credits (Approximately 1 semester)
• Free of any legal obligations
• Able to prove instrumental skills and fulfill other requirements

This is certainly an opportunity for the post-high set to rejoin a marching band or orchestra after being were forced to leave behind the camaraderie of the musicians' groups of school as they progressed to colleges (some without bands) and the real life world of work (even fewer bands there). Some became musicians as a line of work, though; but many more missed their music and their friends. Drum and Bugle Corps have been an option in the USA and Canada for several decades, but membership is usually expensive and age limited to 22 years oldest. Some of the most famous Corps have been Phantom Regiment, the Troopers, and SunCoast Sound, all made more visible by the film about university-based marching groups: Drumline.

People older than 22 need an option for band and orchestra participation, including marching band, and it seems that the idea spreads faster through Western Canada than in the USA. The Carnival Band enjoys being a part of the Activist Street Band Movement in Canada. It is growing in popularity in the United States, however, where people may see and attend HONK! Festivals. The Open Air Orchestra Society, begun by Carnival Band members in Vancouver is promoting the start-up of additional street bands to spread the opportunity to increasing numbers of adults.

The Grandview-Woodlands neighborhood of East Vancouver is in the Commercial Drive area that is part of the Business Improvement Zone or BIZ of the city. This is a lot like an Enterprise Zone (EZ) in the USA, except that in the BIZ, businesses start by paying EXTRA taxes until grant money is found to improve the area. In a federally declared American EZ, tax incentives (discounts, waivers, etc.) are offered first in order to draw businesses into its borders. At one time, businesses paid an additional tax or fee in order to operate in West Virginia in the US as part of an attempt to reduce economic lack and this seems somewhat similar to the BIZ tax policy. EZs continue to offer tax incentives to businesses, even in EZs that are declared within wealthy suburbs as a way to build economies and create new jobs.

The BIZ, like an EZ, generates increased activities that draw people and festivals to the area. Probably any BIZ area is ripe for activist activities that can improve the life of residents and the workings of businesses in the zone. This is how The Carnival started in 1997. It continues to perform at community events like festivals and parades and is very visible in the community. People want to join and they can - all ages!