In 1997, the DCI World Finals were held at the Citrus Bowl Stadium, now known as the Camping World Stadium (briefly also known as Cheez-It Bowl; Cheez-It Stadium, and who doesn’t like Cheez-Its?)

The integration with Walt Disney World included performances and parades, notably in Epcot, which,at the time was a host for Future Corps. Also: Drinking around the world at Epcot was, even then, a thing. (We were going to link to things for this but, honestly, so many people have internetted (TM) about Drinking around the World at EPCOT that we don’t think we should bother. Seriously, google that shit.

Better yet: buy a park hopper ticket and an hotel room and Drink Around the Damn World Showcase in EPCOT. That’s kind of what it’s there for. (Maybe. We think?)

Disney World, in 1997, was also the sponsor/host for the drum corps known as Orlando Magic/ Magic of Orlando (folded 2006).

In World Class finals, the results were:

1: Blue Devils (Concord, California) 98.4 “As Time Goes By.”

2: Cadets of Bergen County (Hackensack, New Jersey) 97.6 “Celebration”

3. Santa Clara Vanguard (Santa Clara, California) 96.9 “Fog City Sketches”

4. Phantom Regiment (Rockford, Illinois) 94.2 “The Ring”

5. Madison Scouts (Madison, Wisconsin) 93.9 “The Pirates of Lake Mendota”

You gotta hand it to Disney. They didn’t even officially host the damn world finals and yet, they held parades and music/guard performances, and a shit ton of the kids in the corps ended up staying the night in Disney properties.

So DCI was totally Disney-fied, from first to last. (Not going to lie: drinking a margarita from the Mexico pavilion and then watching an actual world class drum corps march through the streets is pretty damn spectacular. <this doesn’t happen anymore but totally should.>)

Nevertheless, the world finals went on and were fairly judged. In the Cheez-It, Citrus, Camping World Bowl Thing.

We found video:

Blue Devils, “As Time Goes By”

Cadets of Bergen County, “Celebration” (Rehearsal and Performance Mix)

Santa Clara Vanguard: “Fog City Sketches” (Rehearsal and Performance Mix)

Phantom Regiment: “The Ring” (Rehearsal, Concert, and Performance Mix)

Madison Scouts: “The Pirates of Lake Mendota” (Full Show)

Okay, so a little worse for the wear (like, back in 1997 you had to actually use these tickets), here are two Park Hopper tickets from 1997.

Now, no one asked us, but we think Magic of Orlando Drum and Bugle Corps should still exist. And also, we think that DCI World Finals plus Disney World in Orlando is the perfect mix. BUT Disney World kinda needs to cool it on pricing: like take ALL the pricing down a goddamn notch.

(Not so Fun Fact: Disney pricing has WAY outpaced normal American inflation.)

So, hope you enjoyed the field trip videos back to 1997 and DCI World Finals in Florida.

(Let us know your thoughts on DCI and/or Disney World, Orlando in the comments.)