From modest beginnings more than three decades ago, Drum Corps International (DCI) has developed into a powerful, nonprofit, global youth activity with far-reaching artistic, educational and organizational influence. Through the annual DCI Tour and more than 35 World Championships in 17 North American cities, Drum Corps International provides entertainment to millions through live performances and nationally-televised events. Drum Corps International is Marching Music’s Major League.

The Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) is the largest percussion event in the world featuring over 120 concerts, clinics, master classes, labs, workshops, panels and presentations.

Blast!'s instrumentation is exclusively brass and percussion, a nod to the show's roots in the drum and bugle corps activity. Blast!'s performers use trumpets, flugelhorns, mellophones, baritone horns, tubas, trombones (including one on a unicycle during "Gee, Officer Krupke!"), flugabones (a compact form of valve trombone), french horns, and a full complement of percussion instruments including snare drums, tenor drums, bass drums, xylophones. vibraphones and marimbas, tympani, and other standard percussion equipment. In addition, Blast! adds instruments not normally found in drum corps, such as French horns, concert euphoniums, trombones and bass trombones, didgeridoos and synthesizers.[3][4] Accompanying the wind and percussion is the Visual Ensemble (or VE for short), a group of dancers who manipulate a variety of props, similar to a color guard