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Attendance SHAZZAM!


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So, some of you know that our show, Dublin, was last night. I'd like to throw this out to see if there's any other anecdotal corroboration of what I'm seeing and hearing.

I won't say which corps, but I was chatting with a souvie manager early in the day about his sales and his season. He was almost shocked as he repeated what fabulous sales they'd had all season but, in particular, heading into Texas and ever since. A $10,000 (m) day, a $25m day, a $70m!! He said that it's not just him; most all of the souvie people he'd talked to during the year (and I'd guess that's all of them) were experiencing substantially higher sales.

Attendance, he said, has been fabulous all season.

And to attendance, I'll repeat what I was told yesterday with the utmost of respect: "...word is that Dan Acheson is changing his underwear nearly hourly with the record attendance being reported at every show".

Anecdotally, our show attendance numbers seem to back this up. It's not official, but it appears as though our attendance will be up by over 30%. Yes, we had two of the top-5, and yes we had the "hometown" 'Coats but don't be quick to credit the lineup - we've had at least two of the top-5 in each of our shows for nearly a decade (especially since we switched to late-season seven years ago).

And it wasn't our food trucks, as good as they were.

We may be able to place substantial credit on our Social Media outreach finally reaching maturity with a very capable manager.

But, I think there's something else. In general, across the activity, it appears that attendance is up across-the-board.

Anyone have other corroborating evidence, anecdotal or otherwise?

Edited by garfield
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ATL was up over 18,000.

I promoted to the kids in the h.s. line I instruct. 5-6 went to the show who'd never before attended. (purchased inferno shirts early in the day to avoid sell out issues)

Several others watched streaming cast.

3 others attended reahearsal blocks at corps housing site.

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BAC's home show at Gillette Stadium saw roughly 6,000 in attendance. While drum corps shows in the Greater Boston area usually do well, this level of attendance at a single show probably has not been reached around here since the early eighties.

I should note that while the majority of tix were in the $25-$55 range, there were over a thousand people who paid $125 each for the club seats (which included a buffet and priority parking, among other things).

I do have to say that over the last several years, I've been noticing the crowds getting larger and larger, and the OP is quite correct about souvie sales...Boston has been finding the same.

Hooray for drum corps!!!

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The Atlanta crowd was electric and it seemed most of the corps really fed off the energy. It was great seeing the crowd wrap around the end zone corners....haven't seen that in a really long time.

One side note, shout out to the usher in my section (club level sec 221). He seemed to really love the shows, applauded at several impact moments, and did a great job of hushing the crowd standing in the tunnels. I think we picked up a new fan that night.

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The Atlanta crowd was electric and it seemed most of the corps really fed off the energy. It was great seeing the crowd wrap around the end zone corners....haven't seen that in a really long time.

One side note, shout out to the usher in my section (club level sec 221). He seemed to really love the shows, applauded at several impact moments, and did a great job of hushing the crowd standing in the tunnels. I think we picked up a new fan that night.

Ours went MIA for most of the entire show. There were even folks wandering the aisle beside me trying to walk past Spirit's DM during Encore. Sigh and SMH!

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Garfield,

Do you think the "something else" is the less than stellar online video options this year? My schedule doesn't allow for watching live shows on week nights, so attending weekend shows like Atlanta and NightBeat was a bigger priority for me this year.

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Wow. This is fantastic news for drum corps and hopefully is a trend.

Great news for the souvies too. I was once told by a drum corps sage that souvies weren't a big money maker.

Edited by luv4corps
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Garfield,

Do you think the "something else" is the less than stellar online video options this year? My schedule doesn't allow for watching live shows on week nights, so attending weekend shows like Atlanta and NightBeat was a bigger priority for me this year.

I don't think that is as much a contributor for most people as the fact that last year, the shows were very, very good, which led to good starter buzz. Then this year the shows are VERY VERY GREAT. Like amazingly great. Like really diverse choices and unbelievable levels of execution. They truly are a must-see. That has not always been the case in the past.

Also, DCI's outreach to school programs seems to be paying off and the byproduct of less DCI-provided viewing options seems to be the corps themselves being less diligent about demanding Youtube bootlegs be taken down immediately. They are letting them stay up longer, which gives many more people the chance to see them. Including people who have never heard of drum corps.

Win-Win for everyone so far.

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