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Yesterday, my wife and I walked through the Convention Center in Indy. Unbeknownst to us, a huge cheerleading competition was going on. The entire place was filled with the what looked like kindergartners through high school kids in their various cheerleading outfits.

Doing some research, this was an event put on by Varsity. It has been posted there was some discussion about this group taking over SoundSport. Out of curiosity, I checked the competition website. Here is the performance schedule (49 pages long!). I did not count the total # of groups, but they used up 5 exhibit halls and the kids were performing in 3-minute increments. https://www.varsity.com/jf/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/JFCSN_PerformanceOrder_SPECTATOR_FINAL2.pdf

I'm not familiar with Varsity, but a gut level reaction is as a drum corps fan, I would want no part of this organization. For comparison, I know DCI, BOA, and WGI each have their issues, and each has expenses, but I don't feel like those organizations are quite as much of a cash grab as I felt yesterday walking through what felt like a commercial cattle call. Again, nothing concrete, just a gut-level impression.

Can anyone explain why Varsity should or should not be involved with DCI and/or Soundsport?

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13 hours ago, wolfgang said:

Yesterday, my wife and I walked through the Convention Center in Indy. Unbeknownst to us, a huge cheerleading competition was going on. The entire place was filled with the what looked like kindergartners through high school kids in their various cheerleading outfits.

Doing some research, this was an event put on by Varsity. It has been posted there was some discussion about this group taking over SoundSport. Out of curiosity, I checked the competition website. Here is the performance schedule (49 pages long!). I did not count the total # of groups, but they used up 5 exhibit halls and the kids were performing in 3-minute increments. https://www.varsity.com/jf/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/JFCSN_PerformanceOrder_SPECTATOR_FINAL2.pdf

I'm not familiar with Varsity, but a gut level reaction is as a drum corps fan, I would want no part of this organization. For comparison, I know DCI, BOA, and WGI each have their issues, and each has expenses, but I don't feel like those organizations are quite as much of a cash grab as I felt yesterday walking through what felt like a commercial cattle call. Again, nothing concrete, just a gut-level impression.

Can anyone explain why Varsity should or should not be involved with DCI and/or Soundsport?

 

Varsity's partnership with DCI in operating a Soundsport Scholastic appears to be dead. They tried high school and college band competitions as well as indoor Winterguard and Percussion circuits. All dead.

Old Varsity Soundsport URL, dead:

https://www.varsity.com/performing-arts/soundsport-scholastic/

 

Here's a background of the partnership operation via the handbook  PDF 

https://www.varsity.com/performing-arts/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SoundSport-Scholastic-Program-Handbook_2021_REV.pdf

 

It was called Varsity Performing Arts and the band, guard, or percussion competition programs have been scrubbed from their own website:

https://www.varsity.com/performing-arts/

 

They have since added a partnership with US Bands selling clinics with mostly BD educators.

And they appear to be selling Orlando amusement park trips to scholastic bands now. But that is a pretty competitive market with a lot of seasoned and experienced companies that have great reputations. Hard to imagine them getting much a foothold there, but who knows. 

 

 


 

Edited by mingusmonk
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