Where will the growth take place?

[wolfgang]

On 12/5/2025 at 6:27 AM, mjoakes said:

I don't know how schedules work for WGI and BOA kinds of events. Their championships are popular. But do these take place after several weeks of competitions on a tour?

BOA and WGI 101

No tour. Both orgs have several events per weekend  for about 8 weeks leading to their Championships.

For BOA, Grand Nationals is truly stand alone, meaning bands are not required to have attended any BOA Regionals to attend. You pay the entry fee and go, though probably 80% of bands have gone to one or more BOA events during the season.

Ironically, many of the bands who only do Grand Nationals are from smaller Ohio schools. BOA has 4 classes based on school size and Finals at their events are the top 12 bands (14 for two day Super Regionals) regardless of class.  There is one champion per event, though class winners are recognized.

For WGI, there are 2 Championships weekends, one for guard and the other for percussion and winds. Unlike BOA, units are required to attend at least one WGI event to attend Championships, unless they are hundreds of miles from the nearest Regional, rare for Continentsl US units but normal for overseas groups.

Also, each WGI division has Scholastic (high school) and Independent ,(college, units affiliated with drum corps, majority are stand alone groups) Unlike BOA, groups never directly compete against groups from a different class, and every class is represented in Finals, each with their own winner. Due to shorter performance windows, WGI Finals will have many more units than at a BOA event.

Within each of those, groups are classified based on level of demand/achievement into World, Open, and A classes. WGI will reclassify units during the season, but 99% of the time this happens on the Percussion side. DCi adopted World and Open names from WGI.

Tickets for both orgs are not as costly as DCI, but getting closer every year. There are other aspects of both, but this is a 40,000 foot overview. Also, many judges adjudicate for DCI, WGI, and BOA. If a judge does DCI Finals, odds are they have also judged BOA and/or WGI Finals.

Edited December 6, 2025 by wolfgang

[OldSnareDrummer]

On 12/1/2025 at 5:43 PM, TenHut said:

 

4. Corps members must be from a specified region. IE: Cavys members must be from the Midwest. 

 

Wouldn't that be nearly impossible to enforce?  

It used to be easy enough to get around and find loopholes in college residency requirements for tuition purposes. 

I wouldn't want my grandkid to be restricted from marching with BD if he/she resided in BFE. 

[IllianaLancerContra]

7 hours ago, wolfgang said:

BOA and WGI 101

No tour. Both orgs have several events per weekend  for about 8 weeks leading to their Championships.

For BOA, Grand Nationals is truly stand alone, meaning bands are not required to have attended any BOA Regionals to attend. You pay the entry fee and go, though probably 80% of bands have gone to one or more BOA events during the season.

Ironically, many of the bands who only do Grand Nationals are from smaller Ohio schools. BOA has 4 classes based on school size and Finals at their events are the top 12 bands (14 for two day Super Regionals) regardless of class.  There is one champion per event, though class winners are recognized.

For WGI, there are 2 Championships weekends, one for guard and the other for percussiin and winds. Unlike BOA, units are required to attend at least one WGI event to attend Championships, unless they are hundreds of miles from the nearest Regional, rare for Continentsl US units but normal for overseas groups.

Also, each WGI division has Scholastic (high school) and Independent ,(college, units affiliated with drum corps, majority are stand alone groups) Unlike BOA, groups never directly compete against groups from a different class, and every class is represented in Finals, each with their own winner. Due to shorter performance windows, WGI Finals will have many more units than at a BOA event.

Within each of those, groups are classified based on level of demand/achievement into World, Open, and A classes. WGI will reclassify units during the season, but 99% of thi time this happens on the Percussion side. DCi adopted World and Open names from WGI.

Tickets for both orgs are not as costly as DCI, but getting closer every year. There are other aspects of both, but this is a 40,000 foot overvirw. Also, many judges adjudicate for DCI, WGI, and BOA. If a judge does DCI Finals, odds are they have also judged BOA and/or WGI Finals.

The thing with BOA & WGI is that the unit doesn’t have to provide food & lodging during the week.  

[Rylan]

From what I can remember as a poor kid growing up in the 90s, having DCI broadcast on PBS for free and without having to have cable helped a ton. In fact, it was what convinced me to join band in the first place in 6th grade. I can't imagine me even finding an interest without having the exposure so accidentally. 

This brings me to my point that I believe the overarching theme of why the activity is contracting YoY is that everything has been so monetized that we even have a hard time posting clips on YouTube or getting an official recording because of copyright. Not that those aren't valid reasons but we obviously are moving farther and farther away from being able to find compromise. In turn, we expose less people to the activity incrementally every year. 

Then, there is the issue of the shrinking pool of candidates. In speaking to my large network of current music/band directors at schools, there is a shrinking amount of students wanting to learn brass (in particular low brass) instruments in general. With other band formats growing in popularity (BOA, WGI), we're not doing a good enough job of capturing these kids' interest at an early age. 

I work with kids regularly (on a volunteer basis) at an inner city after-school program and whenever I start to talk about marching band and DCI with them, their eyes light up. In fact, the moment I show them a clip of DCI, they're enamored. However, these kids come from lower-income households (same as my upbringing) and aren't afforded the same exposure to the arts we assume all kids have. 

The interest is definitely there. This is mostly a rambling post, but I have thought about this a lot and the only things I can point to are the usual culprits of cutting the arts: worsening economic conditions, hyper-capitalism, and the cost-of-living. 

The only solution I can think of is to operate competitions and tours on a regional basis (like athletic conferences) which would greatly reduce the cost of tour and allow for corps to attend more shows. This would then still culminate into a Championship with the top 3 or 4 of each region (with a rotating venue for championships, like college football's BCS of past, to equalize the costs for all corps).

[Jeff Ream]

On 12/4/2025 at 6:07 PM, greg_orangecounty said:

I hope I’ve exited the planet before it happens, but to stand a chance the traditional definition of what a “Drum & Bugle Corps” is will probably need to change even further.  Let in woodwinds, cheerleaders/dance groups, choral, gymnastics, orchestra, and maybe even actors. Small elements of these already exist so why not go full force and be summer marching Broadway outdoors?

The idea makes me nauseous, but what we have now stands no chance of survival that I can see. 

 

 

because a full woodwind section all summer long is too ###### expensive. 

[Jeff Ream]

11 hours ago, OldSnareDrummer said:

Wouldn't that be nearly impossible to enforce?  

It used to be easy enough to get around and find loopholes in college residency requirements for tuition purposes. 

I wouldn't want my grandkid to be restricted from marching with BD if he/she resided in BFE. 

exactly. if a kid wants to march BD, but their only options in PA are Raiders or all age....screw it. they wouldn't march.

[Jeff Ream]

6 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

The thing with BOA & WGI is that the unit doesn’t have to provide food & lodging during the week.  

and in WGI many don't provide it on the weekend either

[greg_orangecounty]

10 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

because a full woodwind section all summer long is too ###### expensive. 

Good.  I hate them.

In Drum Corps. 

[mjoakes]

23 hours ago, wolfgang said:

BOA and WGI 101

No tour. Both orgs have several events per weekend  for about 8 weeks leading to their Championships.

For BOA, Grand Nationals is truly stand alone, meaning bands are not required to have attended any BOA Regionals to attend. You pay the entry fee and go, though probably 80% of bands have gone to one or more BOA events during the season.

Ironically, many of the bands who only do Grand Nationals are from smaller Ohio schools. BOA has 4 classes based on school size and Finals at their events are the top 12 bands (14 for two day Super Regionals) regardless of class.  There is one champion per event, though class winners are recognized.

For WGI, there are 2 Championships weekends, one for guard and the other for percussiin and winds. Unlike BOA, units are required to attend at least one WGI event to attend Championships, unless they are hundreds of miles from the nearest Regional, rare for Continentsl US units but normal for overseas groups.

Also, each WGI division has Scholastic (high school) and Independent ,(college, units affiliated with drum corps, majority are stand alone groups) Unlike BOA, groups never directly compete against groups from a different class, and every class is represented in Finals, each with their own winner. Due to shorter performance windows, WGI Finals will have many more units than at a BOA event.

Within each of those, groups are classified based on level of demand/achievement into World, Open, and A classes. WGI will reclassify units during the season, but 99% of thi time this happens on the Percussion side. DCi adopted World and Open names from WGI.

Tickets for both orgs are not as costly as DCI, but getting closer every year. There are other aspects of both, but this is a 40,000 foot overvirw. Also, many judges adjudicate for DCI, WGI, and BOA. If a judge does DCI Finals, odds are they have also judged BOA and/or WGI Finals.

Thanks much for this!

[RiverCityAndTroopersFan]

The growth is happening but dci is neglecting it. The future of DCI is Soundsport and All-Age. The problem is those divisions don’t sell tickets like OC (barely) and WC do. And the world class corps have no interest in promoting their competitors.