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When will Eastern corps travel (Mid)West?


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A line-up similar as such in Racine would be standing room only. The Cabs, as example, do have a following in the area. Racine is one of the most drum corps savvy towns in America.

With that in mind, is there a large festival in Racine during the drum corps season (similar to the Barnum Festival in CT) where the show becomes an add-on venue with a built-in crowd? ... like this:

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Racine County Fair

Annually at the end of July. Youth and Adult exhibits- from Animal to art, photography, woodworking , midway, commercial vendors, food, entertainment daily tractor truck, Garden Tractor, pedal pulls, music fun for all ages.

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A dc show "packaged" in with a local event (and corporate sponsors) would have a better chance to succeed than a straight out dc show on its own - IMO

:-)

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A line-up similar as such in Racine would be standing room only. The Cabs, as example, do have a following in the area. Racine is one of the most drum corps savvy towns in America.

With that in mind, is there a large festival in Racine during the drum corps season (similar to the Barnum Festival in CT) where the show becomes an add-on venue with a built-in crowd? ... like this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Racine County Fair

Annually at the end of July. Youth and Adult exhibits- from Animal to art, photography, woodworking , midway, commercial vendors, food, entertainment daily tractor truck, Garden Tractor, pedal pulls, music fun for all ages.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A dc show "packaged" in with a local event (and corporate sponsors) would have a better chance to succeed than a straight out dc show on its own - IMO

:-)

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With that in mind, is there a large festival in Racine during the drum corps season (similar to the Barnum Festival in CT) where the show becomes an add-on venue with a built-in crowd? ... like this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Racine County Fair

Annually at the end of July. Youth and Adult exhibits- from Animal to art, photography, woodworking , midway, commercial vendors, food, entertainment daily tractor truck, Garden Tractor, pedal pulls, music fun for all ages.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A dc show "packaged" in with a local event (and corporate sponsors) would have a better chance to succeed than a straight out dc show on its own - IMO

:-)

The Racine County Fair, as example, is in a little burg called Union Grove.....20 plus miles from Racine. With that being said, the Kilties' show (Kiltie Klassic) at Historic Horlick Field is always well received as a "stand alone" event and has regular community support. Preliminary plans are for holding it Saturday evening, August 2, 2014. Not only are the Kilties celebrating the 80th year since the corps' founding in 2014, but on that date (August 2nd) it would mark the 100th drum corps show held at Historic Horlick Field since it was constructed.

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I completely agree that it's high time corps like Reading and Hawthorne at the very least make a trip to another region. It makes perfect sense for Reading to travel to Minnesota, and for Hawthorne to perhaps go south. Yes, I understand the financial aspects of such a trip, but as has been pointed out in previous posts, the non-Northeast corps do it every year, many multiple times.

If the Northeast corps really have "the good of the activity" at heart, it's important that they back it up with action.

Well said. !

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"I used to work with a senior corps (that shall remain nameless) that would have 50 ankle bracelets start alarming when they went over the George Washington Bridge..."

That would be truly a funny line if our newest member of the Hall of Fame didn't have me convinced he was serious...

Given that you're one of the few DCP'ers that knows what corps I'm talking about, you know where the lone between funny and serious comes on that one...

They were funny times though.

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I think the main reason this doesn't happen is because the corps would have to pass the added expense of travel on to their members. I don't know if this is still the case but when I was in corps we drove ourselves to most shows, and when we did take a bus it was $20 bucks a head in addition to dues cost. With the rising cost of drum corps across the board, I don't think that it makes financial sense from a eastern corps perspective to do it. From a PR aspect, absolutely, but how are you going to convince the members to spend extra money to do one show in the Midwest? Thankfully all the non east coast corps have been coming east for years. Would I like to do a show out west, absolutely (I loved playing at Winston-Salem in 05 and that wasn't even THAT far), but I don't know how you pass the added costs on to the membership.

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I think the main reason this doesn't happen is because the corps would have to pass the added expense of travel on to their members.

This is where the Corporate Sponsors come in ... they are mainly there to help the show host offset the corps Performace Fee and bus costs ... It's a bigger $$ matrix than just having the tickets pay for everyting ... anyone interested should talk to the Barnum on how they've reinvented the Champions of Parade show ... I know I oversimplify things but, there's untapped opportunities out there ...

:-)

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This is where the Corporate Sponsors come in ... they are mainly there to help the show host offset the corps Performace Fee and bus costs ... It's a bigger $$ matrix than just having the tickets pay for everyting ... anyone interested should talk to the Barnum on how they've reinvented the Champions of Parade show ... I know I oversimplify things but, there's untapped opportunities out there ...

:-)

I hear ya, Andy... they've done a great job with that show.

It's not easy... but it can be done.

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...

I think a show with: Reading, Minn. Brass, Cabs, Kilties, CV Atlanta, Govies, and Cincinnati. Then an Exhibition by Cavaliers Alumni. I know that is a pipe dream. But THAT Shure Would make a point as to " IF " a Crowd would show up. I think it could do very well.

You can thankfully add Chops, Inc. to that lineup now that they've announced their return to the field.

I do agree that Racine would be a great place for a show like that and it would likely get a huge crowd.

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I think every corps in DCA has "the good of the activity" at heart but they also have the good of their corps at heart first and it should be that way. It all comes down to $$$$$. I'm sure Reading, Hawthorne, Bush, and Hurricanes would happily venture south or west if it were financially possible. Kudos to MBI for being able to that. They must have financial wizards keeping their books.

Well it certainly helps when the CEO of MBI is a CPA. :smile:

I'd argue that MBI's geographical location improved the corps' finances over the years. It forced them to integrate the touring costs into the annual budgets to the point where it is now considered a standard line item. It's become simply part of the cost of doing business. A big part, to be sure, but the psychological impact of the budget is lessened.

I agree that the finances of each corps has to be nailed down first. But they really should find diversified sources of income to safely support one large trip each season (or two if the championships ever move to another region.) Diversification helped MBI establish, by far, the biggest operation of any DCA corps.

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