The countdown to the start of the 2024 Drum Corps International season is underway! With that June 26th start date looming ever closer, here's everything you need to know to get you prepped ahead of the start of the 2024 DCI season.

We've got a lot to cover, so let's jump right into it:

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A Running List of DCI 2024 Show Announcements 📋   |   Streaming This Week on FloMarching Radio 📻   |   Photo Gallery - Avon HS @ World Champs 🏆🏳️   |   Photo Gallery - Pulse Percussion @ World Champs 🏆🥁   |   DCI 2024 Streaming Schedule 🗓️

1. 2023 World Class Medalists & Caption Award Winners

In case you needed a refresher on who claimed the bronze, silver, and gold medals at the conclusion of the 2023 DCI season, here's a recap from the World Class:

The 2023 DCI World Championship Caption Award winners were as follows: 

• John Brazale Best Visual Performance Award: Blue Devils
• Fred Sanford Best Percussion Performance Award: The Cavaliers
• Don Angelica Best General Effect Award: Blue Devils
• Jim Ott Best Brass Performance Award: Carolina Crown
• George Zingali Best Color Guard Award: Blue Devils

2. Open Class Recap

Spartans had a season to remember, claiming its second Open Class gold medal in five years (2019, 2023) with its show 'Surreal.' Here's a breakdown of the Open Class Championship Finals scores and Caption Award Winners:

Caption Award winners:

• Best Brass: Gold
• Best Visual: Spartans
• Best Color Guard: Spartans
• Best General Effect: Spartans
• Best Percussion: Spartans

If you're wondering why Blue Devils B and Vanguard Cadets were not in the Finals lineup, BDB opted to keep their 2023 season on the West Coast skipped Open Class Championships. Vanguard Cadets, however, announced a hiatus for the 2023 season that is carrying on into 2024, according to the SCV Cadets website. It is unknown when the corps will become active again.

Another major hit to the Open Class realm: Southwind has officially folded. After claiming third place at the 2023 DCI Open Class Championships with their show 'Cowboys of the Sky,' the corps took to Instagram in October to announce a cease of operations. According to the press release by the corps, they stated rising costs of traveling as a contributing factor for the move to fold: "As an organization that cares first and foremost about its students, we are unwilling to lead them into a fiscally irresponsible situation that could leave them hanging for the summer. Rather than risk their experience, we are making the tough choice to cease operations.”

3. Hellos and Goodbyes

This off-season was gutwrenching for the DCI community. Not only did Southwind announce it was folding, as we covered in the Open Class Recap section, but The Cadets also announced that the corps was folding after filing for bankruptcy. The Cadets stated in a press release on their website that, due to filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, it is likely that, "The Cadets will never return to the marching arts competition field again." 

The 10-time DCI World Championship ensemble was founded in 1934. 2024 would have marked the 90th anniversary of The Cadets. 

And unfortunately, we have another corps that has recently announced a hiatus from the 2024 DCI season: Heat Wave. In a public statement, the Florida-based drum corps cited camp housing, rising costs of transportation and housing, and obtaining new members as a handful of the main reasons behind the move to pause their season.

In their own words: "While we share in both the sadness and frustration felt by members, parents, and volunteers, we also thank those who have contributed to the corps this year. We send our best wishes to our fellow corps and the DCI community for a great season."

On the other side of the coin, we do have some news worth celebrating: Drum corps fans are going to get to experience a new sector of the marching arts with DCI All-Age. Early in 2022, DCI announced a two-year partnership with DCA (Drum Corps Associates), rolling roughly a dozen corps under the DCI umbrella and rebranding DCA to 'DCI All-Age.' The move was made with the goal of growing and expanding the DCI All-Age class. For more information about the partnership, check out our article here.

DCI All-Age Championships will take place at Lucas Oil Stadium on August 10th ahead of DCI World Championship Finals competition.

The 2023 DCA season ended with a bang as the Reading Buccaneers claimed gold in DCA World Class with a score of 99.000 (unreal), followed by the Hawthorne Caballeros (97.000) and the Bushwackers (92.200).

4. Guess Who's Back

Santa Clara Vanguard is BACK for the 2024 Drum Corps International season! After taking a break from the competitive field for the entirety of the 2023 DCI season, the Northern California-based corps is ready to hit the ground running in 2024. Here's everything you need to know about SCV's 2024 production, 'Vagabond.' Check out the show trailer below:

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” The 2024 Santa Clara Vanguard is proud to present, Vagabond.

The show announcement trailer walks fans through high-level information, including some overall vibes and imagery that may be utilized throughout the 2024 season. Additionally, the show announcement trailer reveals the song selections that the Santa Clara Vanguard will be playing this summer. The repertoire includes the following musical selections: 

• United in Grief by Kendrick Lamar
• The All-Seeing Sky by John Psathas
• With Reckless Abandon by Mikael Karlsson
• Mirrorball by Peter Gabriel

SCV's 2022 program titled 'Finding Nirvana' earned the ensemble 5th place at DCI Finals with a score of 95.000.

5. Where the 2023 Top-12 Will Premiere Their Shows

It'll take a couple of days for all of the top 12 corps to make their first public appearance on the competition field in 2024. Still, a majority of the corps can be found at three early-season shows: Midwest Premiere on June 26, Corps at the Crest on June 29, and the Northwest Youth Music Games Portland on July 5. Here's a look at all of the corps fans can get excited to see at those three shows:

• Blue Devils
• Blue Devils B
• Blue Devils C
• Blue Knights
• Blue Stars
• Boston Crusaders
• Calgary Stetson Show Band
• The Cavaliers
• Colts
• Columbians
• Gems
• Gold
• Golden Empire
• Impulse
• Mandarins
• Northern Lights
• Pacific Crest
• Phantom Regiment
• Sacramento Freelancers Alumni Corps
• Santa Clara Vanguard
• Seattle Cascades
• Troopers
• Vessel

You can see the rest of the top-12 finishers for the first time at these shows: 

• Bluecoats - Bluecoats Opening Night Community Celebration on June 29th (streaming LIVE, Exclusively on FloMarching)
• Carolina Crown - DCI Central Indiana on June 28 (streaming LIVE on FloMarching)

6. DCI 2024 Streaming Schedule

Speaking of show premieres, here's a list of all of the DCI 2024 events you can stream live on FloMarching this summer:

• June 26 | Midwest Premiere
• June 28 | DCI Central Indiana
• June 29 | Bluecoats Opening Night Community Celebration
• June 29 | Corps at the Crest
• June 30 | Cavalcade of Brass
• July 2 | Summer Music Games in Cincinnati
• July 6 | DCI West
• July 6 | CrownBEAT
• July 7 | River City Rhapsody - La Crosse
• July 10 | Corps Encore
• July 11 | Music on the March
• July 13 | Drums Along the Rockies
• July 15 | West Texas Drums
• July 16 | DCI Broken Arrow, Presented by Oklahoma Baptist University Athletic Bands
• July 18 | DCI Denton, Present by Stanbury Uniforms
• July 18 | DCI Waco
• July 19 | DCI Houston
• July 20 | DCI Southwestern Championship, Presented by Fred J. Miller, Inc.
• July 22 | DCI Mesquite, Presented by Fruhauf Uniforms
• July 23 | DCI McKinney, Presented by WeScanFiles
• July 24 | DCI Southern Mississippi
• July 26 | The Masters of the Summer Music Games, Presented by DeMoulin Bros & Co.
• July 27 | DCI Southeastern Championship, Presented by Ultimate Drill Book
• July 28 | NightBEAT
• July 30 | Soaring Sounds
• August 2 - 3 | DCI Eastern Classic
• August 3 | DCI Rochester
• August 5 | Innovations in Brass, Presented by Solotech
• August 5-6 | DCI Open Class World Championship
• August 8-10 | DCI World Championship
• August 10 | DCI All-Age World Championship
• August 10 | SoundSport International Music & Food Festival

7. Bluecoats Opening Night Community Performance

Fans can tune in to watch the Bluecoats debut their 2024 show at the Bluecoats Opening Night Community Celebration, streaming exclusively on FloMarching on June 29th. The event will take place at Kehres Stadium at the University of Mount Union. Featuring other local ensembles and Ohio-based drum and bugle corps, the Bluecoats Opening Night Community Celebration will kick off the 2024 DCI season with an Ohio-shaped bang!

The Bluecoats Opening Night Community Celebration joins over 30 other DCI events as FloSports expands its offering for marching fans. 

The full program on Saturday, June 29th will begin with local favorites from the Buckeye State and culminate in the premiere of the never-before-seen 2024 Bluecoats show. The event wraps up with a combined encore including participants in The Blue Way Summer Arts Camp and an encore performance from the 2024 Bluecoats. View the full event schedule below.

• 5:15pm - Gates Open
• 6:10pm - Welcome & Introductions
• 6:16pm - Rogues Hollow Regiment
• 6:30pm - Columbus Saints
• 6:45pm - Columbus Saints Jr. Flag Line
• 6:50pm - Cincinnati Tradition
• 7:05pm - EN-RICH-MENT Drumline
• 7:15pm - Bluecoats Alumni Ensemble Legacy Arc
• 7:30pm - Rhythm IN BLUE
• 7:50pm - World Debut of The Bluecoats
• 8:10pm - Summer Arts Camp Performance with The Bluecoats
• 8:25pm - The Bluecoats Encore

Read more about the Bluecoats Opening Night Community Celebration here.

8. Rebroadcasts for EVERY Show Stream

Missed the show? No problem! FloMarching will air REBROADCASTS of every stream with sound this DCI season the following day starting 24 hours after the original air date/time. So if a regional starts at 6pm CT on Saturday, the correlating rebroadcast of that performance will begin at 6pm CT on Sunday. To watch the live streams and rebroadcasts, all you need is an active FloMarching account - SIGN UP HERE.

9. Number of Performances Per Corps

We've got a lot of shows this season, and as such, fans have many chances to see their favorite corps perform throughout the 2024 DCI season! Here's an overview of how many times the World Class, Open Class, and All-Age corps will take the field, and where they'll be debuting their 2024 productions:

World Class

Open Class

All-Age Class

10. Alumni Corps Performances

Drum corps fans can expect a handful of special Alumni Corps performances throughout the 2024 DCI season. Check out the list below:

• Bluecoats Alumni Ensemble Legacy Arc - June 29th at the Bluecoats Opening Night Community Celebration (streaming LIVE on FloMarching)
• Blue Stars 60th Anniversary Corps - July 7th at River City Rhapsody (streaming LIVE on FloMarching)
• Buccaneers Alumni - July 20th at The Buccaneer Classic and August 4th at Big Sounds in Motion
• Spirit of Atlanta Alumni Corps - July 27th at the DCI Southeastern Championship (streaming LIVE on FloMarching)

In addition to those performances, fans can also watch a special Alumni Corps performance from the Crossmen at DCI World Championship Semifinals on Friday, August 9th. In previous years, fans have gotten to enjoy "throwback" performances from the Bluecoats Alumni Ensemble Legacy Arc (2022) and the Troopers Legacy Corps (2023).