Festivals and Travel Resources for 2018!

The 2017 school year is over, summer band programs are beginning, and planning for 2018 is well underway.

To help with your festival and travel plans, SBO  presents over a dozen great options and resources in this alphabetically-listed showcase!

Bob Rogers Travel

Student travelers will be exploring new destinations next year and Bob Rogers Travel has traveled with groups to each one. Their personal favorite? Nashville. “Music City” has the music history, performance opportunities, and one-of-a kind attractions that are BRT-tested, student-approved and have seen a steady 25% increase in the number of groups traveling there every year. Bob Rogers Travel’s goal is to provide the best, most current guidance for their clients, with a team of travel experts constantly monitors travel trends, and looking for hot new performance travel destinations. Other emerging destinations include: San Antonio, Cleveland, Anaheim, and Honolulu.

800-373-1423 or bobrogerstravel.com

Cedar Fair

Cedar Fair’s range of parks offer performance programs opportunities for students to perform in an exciting and amped up environment. Performers can march down the midway or perform on one of Cedar Fair’s outdoor stages. They offer music educators a variety of programs including adjudicated Festival of Music programs, in-park performance opportunities, and more. With 11 parks across U.S. and Canada including Cedar Point, Knott’s Berry Farm, Canada’s Wonderland, Kings Island, Dorney Park, Kings Dominion, Carowinds, California’s Great America, Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun, and Michigan’s Adventure, Cedar Fair offers a wide range of locations for showcasing your student’s talent while performing in a fun, exciting and casual environment.

cedarfairyouthsales.com

Encore Tours

Encore Tours offers customized touring package opportunities that help boost the ensemble’s reputation in the community and enhance recruitment and fundraising efforts, while also allowing diverse cultures to come together through music. Encore is committed to supporting music education at home. Director workshops and professional networking events along with scholarship programs for young musicians, find them continuing to give back to musical communities year-round. Their mission: “Taking your music program to new places.” Airspace (and bus space) is opening up for 2018! Start planning now to get the best possible price, venues, routing, hotels and restaurants.

877-460-3801 or [email protected]

EPN Travel

EPN Travel specializes in tour planning for student group festival trips and performance tours throughout the United States. EPN travel has developed solid relationships with major hotel chains, restaurants and various attractions to ensure a seamless experience for the students, as well as the group leaders and chaperones. EPN are proud members of both the National Tour Association (NTA) and the Student Youth and Travel Association (SYTA). These organizations serve the Tour & Travel community and have strict membership requirements. Specialists will work with your school to arrange a remarkable adventure and learning experience for your students, while taking the hassle of reservations and rooming lists off your “to-do” list.

888-323-0974 or epntravel.com

Festivals of Music

Festivals of Music incorporates in-demand attractions as host sites for awards ceremonies—including the Newseum in Washington, D.C., the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, and the Ontario Science Center in Toronto. St. Louis is a new location, with performances at the Hettenhausen Center for the Arts and the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts. Many locations are moving to Saturday performance days to provide better venue access and alignment with travel schedules. They return to venues including the Wilder Performing Arts Center (Virginia Beach), Schlesinger Concert Hall (Washington, D.C.), Toronto Centre for the Arts, Duxbury Performing Arts Center (Boston), and new locations in Chicago, Cleveland, and New Orleans.

800-305-7565 or festivalsofmusic.com

Hawaii Band and Orchestra Festival

The 12th Annual Hawaii Band and Orchestra Festival, held March 10, 2018 and April 7, 2018, is one of the best festivals in Hawaii. In addition to performing at festivals, participants attend workshops conducted by nationally known clinicians. Although Hawaii is part of the United States, it offers unique characteristics such as an ethnic mix and cultural differences from the rest of the country. Many of its cultural festivals reflect this difference. In Hawaii, visitors are exposed to the cultures of the Pacific. Hawaii has a significant role in U.S. history. With its unique culture and history, Hawaii offers students and adults an educational experience that is quite different from other visitor destinations in the continental United States.

800-366-7486 or [email protected]

Music in the Parks

Music in the Parks is returning to nearly 40 theme park locations over multiple dates from coast to coast, providing student the opportunity to perform for educationally-focused adjudicators who help them continue their musical development and program growth. A new location added for 2018 is the Michigan Adventure theme park near Muskegon in western Michigan. In partnership with not only many of the Six Flags and Cedar Fair families of parks, but also independent locations such as Hershey Park, Dollywood, and Silver Dollar City, the quarter million students and chaperones who annually attend Music in the Parks experience a day of fun and an exciting awards ceremony in the park that celebrates the achievements of all the participants and their commitment to excellence. A newly updated (and mobile-friendly) website will enhance the simple registration process to enroll your ensemble for any festival date and location, as well as provide access to schedules and invoices and the ability to revise participant numbers.

800-323-0974 or musicintheparks.com

Music Festivals & Tours

Festivals and tours are offered for middle school through college groups. Music festivals,

music showcase festivals, and cruise festivals offer many options. The music festivals program features clinics with adjudicators following your performance. The music showcase festival program provides options for one day or overnight trip travel with theme park admission included. Their cruise festivals with Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Lines offer entertainment, food, different ports-of-call, and a performance festival with an adjudicator. They plan domestic or international travel. For visits to Orlando or Los Angeles, they work with Disney Performing Arts and Universal’s Stars Program. International destinations include England, Italy, Spain, France, and China. Festival dates are online. Registration is now open. They are members of the Student Youth Travel Association (SYTA).

800-545-0935 or musfestivals.com

Performing Arts Consultants

Performing Arts Consultants produce nationwide music festivals held from coast-to-coast in some of the most exciting cities in North America. They have earned the honor of being one of Disney and Universal’s top youth travel planners for over 20 years. Their team of former music educators, professional musicians and seasoned travel planners all have immense destination knowledge and experience with booking elite performance venues, custom workshops, and creating unique travel experiences. Their mission is to provide trips that are fun, educational, and worry-free for students and directors alike. They are also the originators of the acclaimed Festivals at Sea program and are preferred student cruise planners for Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Lines.

800-USA-FEST or usafest.org

Summit Tour & Travel

Summit Tour & Travel specializes in student group travel to domestic as well as multiple international destinations. They offer customized tour packages to fit your group needs, not just standard tour packages. Summit Tour & Travel has been a top producer for Festival Disney at the Walt Disney World Resort and understands the importance of “on-site” educational experiences. Summit Tour & Travel provides precise and detailed itineraries, a comprehensive trip notebook, helpful sales staff, and a knowledgeable personal tour director for all trips.

877-290-6777 or summittourtravel.com

Virginia Arts Festival

The Virginia Arts Festival presents dozens of performances spanning every kind of music including classical, jazz, pop, folk, world, and beyond. Two highlights for the Spring 2018 season: April performances of Britain’s famed Royal Birmingham Ballet in Romeo and Juliet, with the Prokofiev score performed live by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra; and the Virginia International Tattoo’s four performances, April 26-29, 2018. The “Tattoo” is the largest spectacle of music and might in the United States, with inspirational military music, majestic massed pipes and drums, drill team maneuvers, and more than 1,000 performers in one unforgettable show.

757-282-2800 or vafest.org

WGI Sport of the Arts

WGI Sport of the Arts produces indoor color guard, percussion ensemble, and winds competitions. It is called the Sport of the Arts because it brings music to life through performance in a competitive format. WGI celebrated 40 years since the organization was founded in 2017. As a non-profit organization, the sport continues to evolve and grow every season. This year there were more than 40,000 participants at the regional level, and almost 13,000 participants at the Sport of the Arts World Championships.

937-247-5919 or wgi.org

WorldStrides OnStage

New for 2018, the AIM Experience – a customized master class with an adjudicator who will mentor your students for immediate impact and results. Also new for 2018 – Iceland Festival. Perform on the world’s hottest stage, Harpa Music Hall. The lineup of Heritage Festivals includes over 100 festival dates in 25 cities across North America, including New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Anaheim, San Francisco, and Vancouver. Festivals typically last four days and are complete with sightseeing activities, theme park visits, and a celebratory dinner and dance. Heritage Festival adheres to a standard format of scoring by three nationally known adjudicators with mini-clinics following their performance. The highest scoring ensembles receive gold awards, qualifying them for the elite festivals in the WorldStrides OnStage lineup – Festival of Gold and Festival at Carnegie Hall.

800-223-4367 or worldstrides.com/onstage