Glenside native Kirby Kistler, a Color Guard instructor for the Bushwackers Drum and Bugle Corps of Princeton, NJ, will be bringing her students’ best performances to the Glenside, Cheltenham, and Rockledge 4th of July parades this week.

“Doing parades is like a rite of passage in drum corps, especially on the 4th of July and especially in historic ones like Glenside. We’re grateful to be participants year after year,” Kirby, a 2013 Abington High School graduate who participated in in Drum Corp throughout her high school career, said.  

A graduate of Temple University, she was also a Drum Corp International competitor with Crossmen out of San Antonio, Texas and Carolina Crown from Fort Mill, South Carolina. She now teaches the Color Guard at the Bushwackers, who compete in Drum Corps Associates.

In their first year of operation in 1981, the Bushwackers were a small parade corps that spent the summer entertaining crowds in New Jersey and recruiting members. Now, after 41 competitive seasons and six world championship titles, the group still takes time from their competitive season and weekly rehearsals to wow parade-goers with rousing tunes and flag tosses.

“It’s incredibly special to see the group that I spend every weekend with, with members from all around the east coast, marching together through the streets I grew up on and watched the parade on myself as a kid. I hope we inspire some young performers just like the drum corps that I watched did for me years ago,” Kirby said.

For more on the Bushwackers’ history and their 2023 production “Hollywood” you can visit https://bushwackersdc.org. For more on Kirby, you can watch her “Inside the Shot” interview with Chris Maher here:

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