Carolina Gold

The Carolina Gold drum and bugle corps was formed in the fall of 2000 and initially based based in the Rocky Mount area of North Carolina.

In 2001, the corps performed locally and as a “Mini Corps” at the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) championships, entering the field of competition the following year, finishing 3rd in the 2002 DCA “Class A” preliminaries and moved up to the “Open Class” division in 2003, where they placed 13^th in the championship prelims.

In 2004, Dwayne Barnes became executive director of the corps, as they finished 11^th in the 2004 “Open Class” prelims, leading Gold as a DCA “Open Class” finalist in 2005 and 2006, placing 8^th and 10^th respectively. After returning to a "Mini Corps" 2007, they returned to the field of competition in the DCA “Class A” competition, finishing in 8^th in the prelims.

In 2009, after relocating to Greensboro, Gold finished in 4th place in the DCA “Class A” finals and 3^rd in the 2010 “Class A” championships along with receiving the high percussion award, once again placing 3rd in 2011 “Class A” competition, winning both top color guard and percussion awards. In 2012, Carolina Gold was crowned the DCA “Class A” champions, earning the color guard, percussion, brass and visual caption awards.

In 2013, Gold soared back into the DCA “Open Class” division finals, placing 10th, repeating this exploit once again in 2014, when they improved to a 9^th place finish. In the fall of 2014, the corps organized an “Independent Open Class” winter guard called Legacy Independent. After its inaugural season of competition, they followed up in 2016, with a Bronze Medal at finish at the WGI Championships in their division.

The next year saw the corps slip out of the 2015 DCA “Open Class” finals, finishing in 11^th position. That fall, Carolina Gold became the first drum corps to launch a WGI “Winds Ensemble”. Midas Winds celebrated its inaugural season by winning the Silver Medal at WGI Winds Championships.

In 2016 and 2017, the corps remained competitive in the DCA “Open Class” preliminaries, where they finished in 14^th and 12^th respectively. In the fall of 2016, Carolina Gold launched its newest ensemble, Alchemy Independent, the Triangle's only Open Class Independent percussion line. In 2018, Carolina Gold returned to the “Class A” category, which proved to be a great move for the organization as they were crowned 2018 champions while winning all the scored caption awards. 

They successfully defended their title in 2019 before restructuring the in 2020 from an “All-Age” corps to a junior corps and was approved to compete in Drum Corps International under the “Open Class” division. However the competitive season was canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In 2021, the corps went on the inactive list until late 2024, when the group announced they were seeking to return as a parade corps and compete in the SoundSport division of Drum Corps International.

Dave Strickler, inter alia; DCW, 2/04, p.17; update Dwayne Barnes 7/07 and 6/10; update Michael Welge 10/20; Paul Legault (DCX)

CORPS 1 items

Carolina Gold

CarolinaGold,Greensboro,NC,LP1-BlackOval(DST-1.25X0.5)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection Contributed by Donn Stroh

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