- Marching Music's Major LeagueTM
Founded in 1981, the Friends of DCI program started with a small, dedicated group of about 30 charter members. The exclusive, members-only program today includes nearly 400 members. More than 180 of the current Friends members have been contributing annually for more than a decade.
As a Friend of DCI, you are helping to guarantee that future generations of young, world-class performers enjoy the opportunity to achieve their ultimate performances, and you’ll be there to enjoy every heart-pounding minute from the best seats in the house.
Membership in the prestigious “Friends of DCI” provides you with exclusive, partners-only benefits in and around the summer drum corps season. You will belong to an “inner circle” of our most committed fans who wish to encourage – and enjoy – “Achievement at a Higher Level” today and long into the future.
With uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, DCI is having to make many changes to our standard operating procedures and to many of our programs to allow maximum flexibility for 2021 and beyond.
Related to the 2021 Friends of DCI program, at this time, we simply do not know how many seats will be available, what sections they will be in, or the amount of space potentially required between seats. We don’t even know when we might have answers to these questions. There is no one-size-fits all solution to the current issues. The corps along with the DCI board of directors and DCI staff have been working hard to explore all possibilities.
Previously, Friends of DCI memberships included two major components: a philanthropic donation to support the mission of DCI as well as access to tickets in the Friends of DCI seating section. In most cases, those tickets would be considered a premium for the donation (included as a benefit of your membership at no additional charge). For some of the membership levels, there was also an option to purchase additional tickets.
Starting in 2021, those two components—donations and included tickets—will still exist but they are being “uncoupled.” Each membership level will still include access to tickets in the Friends of DCI section, but all tickets will be processed as an additional purchase. The amount of the donation needed to qualify for specific levels will actually be lowered to help offset a portion of the cost of the tickets that were previously included.
This change is being made to streamline the processing of the membership and tickets while giving DCI and the stadium maximum flexibility to manage the capacity and distancing requirements within each section.
Ticketing location assignments and payments for the tickets to this summer’s three-day event in Indianapolis will be handled in the Spring of 2021 to allow DCI and Lucas Oil Stadium to utilize the maximum seating capacity allowed by the Marion County Health Department.
Other popular benefits traditionally included within the Friends membership levels are the Friends of DCI Breakfast event on the morning of Finals in Indianapolis, VIP badges, and DCI Souvenir Yearbooks. As of today, we do not know what changes may need to be made to any of these items. If available, they will be added to the 2021 Friends program at a later date.
The Friends of DCI program is being expanded to other DCI events. As select individual events are added to the DCI Tour, one of these options will apply (depending on the specific requirements of the venue):
Diamond Friendship: $4,000 or more
• Purchase up to 16 ticket packages*
Platinum Friendship: $2,000 or more
• Purchase up to 8 ticket packages*
Gold Friendship: $1,250 or more
• Purchase up to 6 ticket packages*
Silver Friendship: $750 or more
• Purchase up to 4 ticket packages*
Bronze Friendship: $300 or more
• Purchase up to 2 ticket packages*
DCI Friendship: $100 or more
• Donation only
*Note: Quantity of ticket packages are subject to availability. Due to COVID-19, seating is limited and is currently available in pods of 2, 4 or 6. All seating is subject to the approvals of Lucas Oil stadium and the Marion County Health Department.
