Marchers from across the Midwest will carry their drums and bugles to NIU’s Huskie Stadium for the 11th Annual Drum Corps Midwest Championship Saturday.

The all-day affair consists of 29 corps competing for points. Veteran DMC Executive Director Roman Blenski said, “We’re not going to announce the scores. The only thing the corps will know is whether they made finals.

“Also, this year they’ll (corps) draw out of a hat to determine the (performance) position they take so all will have an equal chance. Whoever performs the best should win,” he said.

The championship has been held at NIU since 1978 in cooperation with the NIU’s College of Continuing Education.

The championship has grown this season to 61 DMC-sanctioned competitions in several states. However, NIU’s show is the only one of the year in which all DMC corps are together at one location, along with other corps seeking DMC status.

Blenski said two special attractions will accompany the show. He said the Skywriters, a corps from Hutchinson, Kan., will use “The Sound of Music” for its drill.

“The Limited Edition” will be the second attraction, performed by a new corps from Columbus, Ohio, Blenski said.

The preliminary competition begins at 8 a.m. and should continue to 6 p.m. The 12 top corps from the preliminaries will advance to the finals, which is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

Corps will compete in four divisions. Division I contains corps with 90 to 128 marching members. Division II will feature corps of 60 to 90 members.

Corps with fewer than 60 members will be in Division III, and senior corps over the age of 22 will make up the fourth division.

Blenski said in the earlier competitions, “Everybody has been defeating everybody. In three of the four classes there is no obvious winner and that adds to the tension.”

Last year’s defending champions from Division I are the “clean, green machine” Cavaliers from Rosemont, Ill.

The Northern Aurora from Saginaw, Mich. cleaned up Division II, while The Emerald Knights from Ceader Rapids, Iowa stole first in Division III.

Tickets cost $5 for the preliminaries, which are entirely general admission. Tickets for the finals are reserved seating at a cost of $10 apiece.