DCI 2014...Europe?

[lindap]

Hear that, boys and girls? Sleeping...on...the...beach. South...of...France.

VP's and Sr. Managers dream of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

Cavie Rookie: "Wow, you marched 2014?"

Cavie Age-Out: "Yup. Iberian tour."

But I still don't like the idea of just music-related advertising and corporate dollars. Needs McDonald's, Nike, etc.

We slept on the beach in Monte Carlo, no affordable places to stay and not enough schools. Just logistics. Gotta go corporate to make it work. Yeah, some of the men in France, Belgium and Italy blew kisses at us as was their custom. I also explained to some of the girls that we are not going in circles 'cause they saw the sign for the town of 'Ausfahrt' over and over again. At the time, I spoke French and German. Ausfahrt is exit in German like the off ramp exit sign. Au revoir, buonas noches.

[drumcat]

I just had a 7-year-old moment...

You said "Ausfahrt". LMFAO.

[FH4life]

OMG! I am your newest biggest fan! I was going to go to world stadiums.com, or whatever, and check out big EU soccer stadiums. Didn't even know which ones were big, but see there, folks? I tend to make pretty decent assumptions.

Oh, and check out the Wembley Stadium web site. Down near the bottom there is a banner ad that says "Want to Work at Wembley Stadium?" Like, the stadium. Not for one of the games. Just any particular event. "Want to come work your nads off at 'just some' stadium?" Geez, even Jerry World won't be having that. Now THAT'S a stadium we need to have finals in!

And something tells me those 'soccer' fields are immaculate! Is outdoor season during July/August in Europe? How would they feel about us painting lines on their grass?

Somebody tell George that he wouldn't be allowed to complain about lines--especially if everybody had to deal with only the '50'! Now wouldn't THAT be awesome!

Great pics, 4H!

haha, thanks silvertrb ;-)

Summer, unless there's a world cup or european championship going on, leaves stadiums empty. So they would all be available for drum corps. Grass can be cleaned or replaced.

Also, I think that finals should be held in the heart of europe, meaning London, Paris or Berlin. Where, btw, the most of european DC fans live. Spain has not even clue what marching band is, Italy is still in the process of getting a clue.

I was also thinking about Amsterdam Arena:

but it's indoor...

btw I performed in the Giuseppe Meazza in Milan, we were only 64 (36 winds) and the echo was terrible... Think about 150 members.

In general, stadiums with a running track should be avoided. That would keep fans, I think, too far from the front side line. So soccer dedicated stadiums should be picked.

[danielray]

Though it would be INSANELY expensive, the coolest thing I can think of would be a European TOC hitting Moscow.

If promoted right it could actually draw a bigger crowd than finals. Moscovites LOVE the arts and especially something new. A lot of shows that tour see their largest crowds in Moscow, where they barely draw anyplace else.

Besides being crazy expensive (think NYC x2), other drawbacks would be that is it super hot and humid there in August, but never rains, and there is no AC anywhere.

But... imagine watching drum corps in these seats at Luzhniki Stadium...

[Piper]

Though it would be INSANELY expensive, the coolest thing I can think of would be a European TOC hitting Moscow.

If promoted right it could actually draw a bigger crowd than finals. Moscovites LOVE the arts and especially something new. A lot of shows that tour see their largest crowds in Moscow, where they barely draw anyplace else.

Besides being crazy expensive (think NYC x2), other drawbacks would be that is it super hot and humid there in August, but never rains, and there is no AC anywhere.

But... imagine watching drum corps in these seats at Luzhniki Stadium...

Hmmmm......culture wise I think I would go with St. Petersburg.

[danielray]

Hmmmm......culture wise I think I would go with St. Petersburg.

Piter would be cool, as well. The city is building a pretty amazing new stadium... right on the water.

Either city, or even Kyiv would be cool too. One of the biggest cities in the world is there.

I think an Eastern European TOC could be much more interesting for the corps and could attract a larger audience than in Western Europe, even though corps exist there and not in the east.

16 days...

Start in Kyiv, then Warsaw, Minsk, Riga, Piter, Moscow.

Each event would certainly also be broadcast (live if the timing was right) on television on one of the major networks. Each network in most of these countries still follow the practice left over from the Soviet period where 20% of airtime on ALL broadcast channels must be dedicated to the arts and culture. This makes for some pretty interesting stuff.

I actually went to a wind ensemble competition once that was broadcast live (3 cameras, with one on a crane) on a national network with a local celebrity host. If this gets that kind of airtime, drum corps definitely would.

[silvertrombone]

Glad you chimed in, daniel. I saw the stadiums in Kiev, St Pete, and Moscow as well as a few in Eastern Europe. Moscow's especially stood out! But I figured it would be too far away and expensive. May be worth looking into. If you have 8 new places that each out-draw finals, do you do it? Me thinks yes, especially when there is, as you say, such an emphasis on the arts.

Bump. (Didn't want it to die just yet!)

Oh, anybody know about the stadium in Armenia with 70,000 seats? HUGE concert side with few on the backfield side. Interesting arrangement. 50-60k attendance potential??

[danielray]

Glad you chimed in, daniel. I saw the stadiums in Kiev, St Pete, and Moscow as well as a few in Eastern Europe. Moscow's especially stood out! But I figured it would be too far away and expensive. May be worth looking into. If you have 8 new places that each out-draw finals, do you do it? Me thinks yes, especially when there is, as you say, such an emphasis on the arts.

Bump. (Didn't want it to die just yet!)

Oh, anybody know about the stadium in Armenia with 70,000 seats? HUGE concert side with few on the backfield side. Interesting arrangement. 50-60k attendance potential??

Armenia is still pretty rough. Yerevan is pretty dirty, dangerous and crime-ridden and the infrastructure has started to sort of crumble.

Independence from the Soviet Union was incredible for some and has been a disaster for others. The countries that have done quite well are the ones that have had a history of actual independence. The ones that struggle are the ones that have had long histories of being under foreign rule. Unfortunately, they are simply incapable of managing themselves, as they have no practical experience or tradition of this.

In the case of Armenia, they have been under foreign rule for centuries... the Mongols, the Turks, Imperial Russia and then the Soviet Union. During the Russian/Soviet rule, much of the administration was from Moscow or either educated and well connected to Moscow. Most of the top educators in the universities were also from Russia, as well as those responsible for much of the major industry and infrastructure. Their first task was to kick all of these ethnic-Russian individuals out... leaving no one around that actually knew how to do much of anything.

Sad, but true.

Anyway, I see only the opportunity for drum corps to do a TOC in Eastern Europe to major cosmopolitan cities.

[lindap]

Michael Boo was kind enough to publish letters (email without the E) when we were in Europe in 1977.

http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/inde...6&hl=europe

Things change in 30 years so take my advice with a 'grain of salt'. I know now Wembley Stadium was re-built since. Lots may have changed.

Other considerations are transportation. We had to hire vehicles and drivers. In Britain they drive on left side of road. We stayed 10 weeks so lots of time to travel. If you take 2 planes, make sure the people and instruments are on one plane. uniform and food on another. At least you can perform while you wait for the second lost plane. Also, maybe consider train. I understand Europe has an efficient train infrastructure.

Keep in mind population base. We in North America usually have no problem travelling 1,000 miles; many Europeans consider 300 kilometers alot. Now you have the metric thing. If you get a chance to play in a stadium, think metres and not yards. If you have to perform for corporate sponsorship, you may have to march on cobble stone, middle of a horse race track etc. so shows have to built on step counts not field lines. Also, we did not take rifles or sabres in 1977. May need to downsize equipment. Take only what you need.

Language and customs are considerations. Applause is applause but whistling means something different. Not to deter from this post, but logistics and research is the thing. I would love every drum corps to have the opportunity to travel and do drum corps in Europe. One of the many wonderful times of my life and very rewarding.

Edited September 12, 2007 by lindap

[silvertrombone]

They go for 'weird' stuff like drum corps.

See *

Moscovites LOVE the arts and especially something new.

* New = 'Weird'

Language and customs are considerations. Applause is applause but whistling means something different. Not to deter from this post, but logistics and research is the thing. I would love every drum corps to have the opportunity to travel and do drum corps in Europe. One of the many wonderful times of my life and very rewarding.

That concerns me, because we can't even research field conditions and the ability of line paint to withstand the abuses of a drum corps competition--how would we ever be able to do 4 countries in 4 performances with 4 different languages!? Yikes!