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WGI cancels 2021 World Championships in Dayton, other in-person events

By WHIO Staff

SEE: Local guard and percussion in WGI competition Miamisburg High School World Guard performs at the Winter Guard International competition at UD Arena on Thursday morning. More than 12,000 participants from 350 winter guards and 250 percussion lines are competing at regional venues over the next two weeks including the Nutter Center, Hobart Arena, Cintas Center at Xavier University and BB&T Arena at Northern Kentucky University. This is the 33rd year the competition has been in Dayton. TY GREENLEES / STAFF

By WHIO Staff

DAYTON — Winter Guard International, which was scheduled to hold its World Championships at UD Arena in the spring, has announced it has cancelled in-person events for the 2021 season.

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“We had hoped to use this upcoming season as a beacon of healing after the abrupt and challenging end to the 2020 season,” WGI officials said in a statement. “Still, after numerous discussions with local and state health officials, our top priority remains to ensure the health and well-being of all our participants and patrons.”

WGI was one of the first large-scale local events impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, when its board of directors made the decision to cancel the 2020 World Championships in March.

For the world championships, over 16,000 participants from 41 states and five counties were expected to travel to the Dayton region this past season.

According to the Dayton Convention & Visitors Bureau the WGI World Championships are the community’s largest event.

“In April 2019, collectively over nine days in a two-week period, the events generated an estimated $24,705,000 in direct spending economic impact for the region,” said Jacquelyn Y. Powell, President & CEO of the Dayton Convention & Visitors Bureau. “This will represent a difficult loss for the local hospitality community in 2021, and is another example of the damaging impact the coronavirus continues to have on the travel and tourism industry.”

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