Belton, Texas – On Thursday, July 21, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor will once again serve as the opening night of the world-renowned Drum Corps International (DCI) Tour in the state of Texas. The gates will open for the event at 4:30 p.m. in Crusader Stadium on the UMHB campus. Tokea, the first group to perform, takes the field at 5:40 p.m. Single ticket prices currently range from $25 to $35 with discounts available to groups of 20 or more people.
This is the second time UMHB has hosted a DCI event. The first was last July. Nils Landsberg, conductor of the university’s Blackshirt Cru marching band, has been working with Drum Corps International to bring another event to Belton. He says organizers did not require any persuading.
“Everyone really responded to Crusader Stadium,” Landsberg said. “As big as it is, it has a really intimate feel.”
Landsberg relayed a conversation he witnessed between a DCI official and a group of university administrators following the event.
“He told them, ‘I know you built this for football, but you ended up making a really great stadium for drum corps,’” Landsberg said.
Drum Corps International boasts more than 5,000 members from 15 different countries. Each year hundreds of thousands of fans attend DCI events held throughout North America.
Landsberg spoke to several attendees for whom last year’s event was their first Drum Corps International experience.
“People loved it,” Landsberg said. “Many I’ve spoken to were already asking in the fall if it was coming back again this summer.”
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the Drum Corps International website
