The second day of the 2021 Drum Corps International Celebration at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium focused on the theme of “Rejoice,” marking a celebration of performing corps members and their incredible achievements in continuing to make the drum corps activity thrive during an unprecedented time.

With the global pandemic causing the cancelation of the 2020 DCI Tour, 2021 gave graduating age-out corps members from that year the opportunity to be eligible to participate beyond DCI’s usual 22-year old age limit. In a nod to the annual ceremony presented as part of the DCI World Championship Semifinals, 2020 and 2021’s age-out corps members were invited onto the field to commemorate the final days of their junior drum corps careers and to put a celebratory punctuation mark on their incredible experiences with their respective corps.

Separated into several different blocks of recognition throughout the event on Friday, August 13, due to COVID protocols, DCI broadcast personality Dan Potter became the first to welcome ageouts into the ranks of alumni corps members with the following words:

Ageouts: The fact that we are here today is because of you.

Sure, there are lots of people—alumni, fans, corps directors, the dedicated DCI staff—who worked and fought and fundraised tirelessly over the last year to keep corps alive.

But, the bottom line is: DCI is you, the performer. And, as ageouts, you’re the most senior performers, the leaders of your corps. If you hadn’t shown up—Shown up virtually in 2020, and in-person this year, it wouldn’t have mattered how much the rest of us did.

Without your belief in drum corps and your desire to perform there would be no DCI. No drum corps.

So, thank you for your continued passion for this activity and thank you for “showing up.”

Wherever you go, you will always be part of the DCI family. And we hope you will continue to “show-up,” whether as an instructor, volunteer or as a fan.

Thank you for the goosebumps you’ve given us. We love you.

Now, go make the world a better place!

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