Hello All,

I hope you had a good end to your school year and that if you’re not already on summer break, you will be soon!!

I apologize for the delay in getting more details out to you all, but we are in the final steps of finalizing plans for the 2025 Festival location etc. We couldn’t share much before now, but we are pleased to announce that - barring any unforseen complications - we will be headed back “home” to Towson University next year for Festival 2025 - January 24th and 25th.

We know that these dates are not going to be ideal for a number of folks, with several different conflicts for different schools / individuals. However, our usual MLK weekend dates were just not possible for Towson at this point and, after much hard work, it looks like it is the best option that we have for the most constituents. (Looking further into the future - 2026 and beyond - we are hoping to shift back to our usual timeframe and also explore other opportunities for participation throughout the state.)

Again, we know many of you are already starting your summer break, but wanted to let everyone know what the plan is as soon as we could.

Heads-Up on some other Festival Plans

• In the last update, we mentioned the possibility of having to downsize / limit registration. The good news is that Towson has worked really hard to open up as much space for us as possible and, while we will have to cap our registration, it should be comparable to last year’s numbers, which were already pushing the max that UMD could accomodate. Some things like opening/closing ceremonies and meals in the dining hall will likely have to be split into Blue / Gold tracks (deja vu), but we should not have to “downsize”.

• That being said, our intention is to open registration by September 15th and we want to communicate clearly that we cannot guarantee it will not fill-up before the closing deadline - so registering early is strongly encouraged!

• To help registration go more smoothly, and to make sure that everyone is clear on expectations etc., we will be holding several mandatory virtual training sessions. Troupe Directors must attend one of them before we will open registration for that school. To help you plan ahead, here are the dates/times:

  • August 22nd - 7pm

  • August 24th - 9am

  • August 27th - 7pm

    • The dates above were chosen to be around the time most schools were returning and/or before they return so that Troupe Directors will know what has changed in our registration system and can plan with students accordingly before the system officially opens. (If you are worried that you will not be able to attend those specific dates, don’t panic! - we will look at how many directors are in the same boat and either schedule additional meetings or 1 on 1 calls.)