How Does the Activity Expect to Survive.

[greg_orangecounty]

11 hours ago, ironlips said:

In a perfect world there would be 2 classifications:

1. Pure Brass and Percussion - US Marine Corps, West Point Hellcats, Old Guard, Greg, and Frank

Put me in coach!!!

After my nap. 

[Jeff Ream]

16 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

I guess y’all are correct.   
There are no more good ideas on how to rescue Drum Corps from its slow decline and ultimate extinction.  
 

We have met the enemy and he is us. 

the idea has merit in a different world for education. the school world runs August til June depending on where you are. many competitive programs also charge participation fees, and then you factor in the zillion of scholastic indoor programs nationwide. something would have to give, because no administration is going to give up their friday night football jukebox to give the kids time off because they toured all suumer.

[Jeff Ream]

15 hours ago, Slingerland said:

Flutes on the field in Open Class won't really drive anyone away, the same way that violins, guitars, and cellos in World Class didn't. Not to put too fine a point on it, but most people who call themselves drum corps fans don't show up to Open Class shows anyway, so....

If you want to find ways to make it affordable again, you're going to have to focus on growing the number of participating organizations so that more corps can compete regionally, rather than nationally, and short of coming up with $300 million in seed money to help create 100 new open class/local corps, you're going to have to focus on ways to utilize assets that already exist. 

On the point about band directors not wanting to do summer shows, as noted, that was once the norm, and, comes down to it, summer competitive marching band makes a lot more sense than fall competitive marching band. Give them an option that de-stresses the BOA calendar in favor of something more casual and lower cost, and you might find that some of the thousands of high schools who don't WANT the fall competitive band experience could do it as a summer school project (we're aware that the vast majority of high schools aren't into the fall competitive band thing, right?)

i'd show up if some were near me. this summer one is on the schedule and i am ready to push the button and order tickets once the info is available

[Jeff Ream]

7 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Well haven’t been to DCA in person since 2013…. Did anyone notice. 😆

i did in Williamsport. i had $$$ on if you could handle the steps. hell i barely managed them

[Jeff Ream]

5 hours ago, craiga said:

I think our shows here in the Boston area tend to have older audiences, as does Allentown.   The Texas shows I have been to have been obviously much younger audiences.   

Allentown seems to be getting younger. 

[Jeff Ream]

5 hours ago, Slingerland said:

Well, again, I'm talking about Open Class, where no one is showing up for them relative to the WC shows anyway. So the same old timers who ignore Open Class now would be ignoring Open Class if they had a few flutes in the interest of having more kids doing summer band (which is what drum corps is, call it what it is). Net effect, zero

Without increasing participation, there is zero chance of building a more solid foundation under the activity that will generate the type of outside revenue that makes it affordable to do this. Taking just the two SCV orgs off the field this year and adding in Legend takes 400 kids off the field who would have been doing drum corps. No one is replacing them. If a business is dying, you stop and ask "why?" and then 'what can we do to fix it".

But in this case, doing more of the same, as so many in this thread seem to be demanding, is a guaranteed fail. The activity needs more participation in order to survive. Now you can hope more people show up, or you can look at the tools you have accessible, and try to use those tools to your best advantage to affect that change.
 

well lets be honest...look at where the OC shows are. how are you going to draw huge crowds to the NWPA show? there's more elk there than people. Erie is the closest city, and that's #### near close to 2 hours away. the majority of the population of PA is 4 or more hours away. Same for many other places OC shows are run

[JimF-LowBari]

4 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

i did in Williamsport. i had $$$ on if you could handle the steps. hell i barely managed them

Seriously with no handrail. 😱

[njthundrrd]

15 hours ago, C.Holland said:

1. The last combo I purchased with a small drink and fries cost me $13.

2. You can’t feed members this crap 4 meals a day and expect them to perform well. Or last all season on it. It’s not nutritional. 
 

3. your meal hour just turned into to 2 hours getting everyone to, fed, and from whatever your nearest to. 
 

 

My point was not the quality of the food. The cost of buying something cheap to eat outside of drum corps equating it with the cost of being on tour. 

Edited January 23, 2023 by njthundrrd

[njthundrrd]

12 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:

Regarding Indy, the crowd gets younger as the days progress, with Saturday being the youngest, but depending what qualifies as “old fart,” I would say the 50-plus crowd is more than 12%.

Are the crowds getting younger... or are we getting older?

[cixelsyd]

7 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

well lets be honest...look at where the OC shows are. how are you going to draw huge crowds to the NWPA show? 

I cannot say - but they do.  If you decide to go to the Sheffield show, I would suggest you order tickets in advance.