San Francisco, February 27, 2010 – Three Star United members participated with the Renegades Drum and Bugle Corps at the 2010 Chinese New Year Parade in downtown San Francisco on Saturday evening.

Mellophonists Mike Chromik, Sean Conley, and Scooter Pirtle rehearsed with the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) finalist corps on Treasure Island located in San Francisco Bay Saturday afternoon, hours before performing in the parade that was witnessed by nearly two million people.

“The hospitality extended to us by the Renegades was spectacular,” says Scooter Pirtle, mellophonist with the Star United Mini Corps based in Indianapolis. “This was sort of like a West Coast drum corps fantasy camp for all three of us. Of course, all of the high volume playing has likely rendered us partially deaf and most likely sterile—which is not necessarily a bad thing.”

San Francisco has celebrated the Chinese New Year for over 150 years, capping the festival off with a parade that has become the largest Asian event in North America and the largest general market event in North California. The parade has been ranked by the International Festivals & Events Association as one of the top ten parades in the world.

The Chinese New Year is a two week spring festival that has been celebrated for over 5,000 years. Each year of the Chinese calendar is represented by an animal that, according to legend, responded to a call from Buddha prior to his departure from earth. As a reward, Buddha named a year after each of the animals in the order they arrived. The year 2010 is The Year of the Tiger.

The Renegades Drum and Bugle Corps (Web Site) was founded in 1996. The all-aged corps consists of junior corps veterans and performers who are new to the activity. The corps has been recognized by the city as the Official Drum & Bugle Corps of the City of San Francisco. The group has also become a crowd favorite at DCI and DCA events in California, as well as the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) Championships.