DAYTON — The Winter Guard International Sport of the Arts World Championships are returning to Dayton and surrounding communities after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
WGI is celebrating their 45th anniversary this year. This year’s event marks the 35th year it has been hosted in Dayton.
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WGI brings together over 16,000 high school and independent color guard, percussion and winds units from across the United States and Canada.
The championships will be taking place over two weekends in April. The first weekend begins today, April 7, and runs through Saturday, April 9 and will feature the WGI Color Guard World Championships. The second weekend runs from April 21-24 and will feature the WGI Percussion and Winds World Championships.
This year, officials estimate 55,000 people to attend over the two weekend championships.
Events are scheduled to take place at UD Arena and the Nutter Center, as well as Cintas Center at Xavier University and Truist Area at Northern Kentucky University.
In 2019, the last year the competitions were held, the championships had an economic impact of $24 million, according to a release. Officials said they anticipate that to be slightly lower this year as they recover from the pandemic and with each World Championship weekend being one day shorter.
WGI’s headquarters are located in Miamisburg.
More information on the World Championships and their schedules can be found here.
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