Dozens of horn players climbed atop what resembled a giant wedding cake in the middle of the football field, while drummers, xylophone players, rifle twirlers and dancers spread out across the field in a spectacle worthy of a major college football halftime show.

The wall of sound produced by the Cadets drum and bugle corps from Allentown, Penn., and the visual spectacle of brightly dressed dancers spinning flags and flipping rifles and swords in the air, propelled the Cadets to the top of the podium at the annual Fourth of July Drum & Bugle Corps competition Tuesday night at Cranston Stadium.

The Cadets scored 77.2 of a possible 100 points Tuesday, beating out the Phantom Regiment of Rockford, Ill. (73,9 points), the Crossmen of San Antonio, Texas (69.7), and the Boston Crusaders (68.4) for the World Class title. In the lower Open division, the Spartans of Nashua, NH, scored 56.9 points to beat the 7th Regiment of New London, Conn.

The judging of the drum & bugle corps is based not only on how the bands sound, but also the visual presentation and creativity in the choreography of the performance. In some of the larger bands, more than 100 drummers, trumpet, trombone, tuba and French horn players, along with xylophone and bells players and even a violinist, combine with the dancers and twirlers in what appears to be organized chaos spread across the field, but is actually a highly coordinated performance with each movement precisely scripted.

The judges take in the sound of the band and the choreography of the spectacle to come up with the score — a possible 40 points for “general effect,” 30 points for visual, and 30 points for music.

“What might seem obvious on the surface may be masked by the complexity of Drum Corps International’s judging system,” the DCI explains in a program to spectators, “which takes into account an entire process combining the creativity of a corps’ program and the outstanding performers who bring the show to life.”

The drum corps certainly brought the show to life at Cranston Stadium Tuesday, as they do at venues all across the country. Twenty-one World Class and 28 Open Class corps from all reaches of the United States and Canada compete weekly throughout the country. The Cadets are among the top in the organization, having won the DCI World Championships 10 times.

These drum corps put on more than your typical football halftime show. The dancers and musicians weave in and out of each other in a coordinated dance. Dozens of drummers and horn players produce a powerful sound one might expect to feel in a stadium rock concert rather than on a high school football field.

And that’s exactly with Drum Corps International is … more than your typical high school marching band. It is a prestigious traveling music review, which is partly why the Fourth of July competition was staged outside Bristol for the first time in its 27-year history.

Traditionally held at Mt. Hope High School on July 3, this year, Drum Corps International decided high school fields — and the ruts and divots often found on them — are no longer adequate for the world-class performers. Searching for a suitable venue, organizers settled on Cranston Stadium, largely due to its central location.

There was initial concern that people wouldn’t travel to Cranston, especially the day after the Fourth of July, but those concerns were allayed by showtime. Ticket sales were slow at the start, but picked up in the past couple weeks, according to Gerald Medeiros, one of the event organizers. Walk-up sales on the day of were bigger than anticipated, inflating the crowd to nearly 3,000 people, larger than the roughly 2,500 people who had traditionally attended the event at Mt. Hope.