Festivals & Competitions
From competition day to free time, we handle every detail of your group’s trip so you can focus on the performance.
52+ years of custom educational travel · Trusted by school groups in all 50 states · SYTA, IATAN, ARC, and NTA accredited
Festivals and competitions bring bands, choirs, dance teams, and cheer squads from across the country into one city for a weekend, where each ensemble or team performs for a panel of judges and comes back at the end for awards. We handle everything around the performance, from the motorcoaches and hotels to the meals and the free days, so your group arrives rested and gets the most out of their experience.
The Challenge
After fifty years of these weekends, we have found that leaders tell us the same two things. The schedule is the first, since registration, divisions, and performance order belong to the event, and the assignment that shapes your entire trip often arrives only weeks out. The second is everything surrounding the performance, which is a full trip’s worth of planning landing on a director or coach already well into a season.
We handle both by securing transportation and accommodations before they become scarce, then building the days around a performance time that has not been assigned yet. When the event releases its schedule, we adjust the itinerary and tell you what has changed. Registration, payments, and traveler questions run through us from the start.
How It Works
Custom sounds like more work. With us, it’s less.
1
Discovery Call
Tell us about your group, your rough dates, and how many are traveling. A short conversation to get started.
2
Custom proposal
We send a full proposal with itinerary, venues, and transparent pricing.
3
Revisions
Change anything you want. Swap a venue, adjust a day, or shift the budget. We revise until it fits.
4
Enrollment
We handle signups, payments, and traveler communication so you do not have to.
5
Support on the trip
Your planner and a 24/7 emergency line are with your group the entire trip.
CUSTOM ITINERARY
What a real trip looks like:
The trip that makes an impact
The Experience
Groups get an adjudicated performance in front of judges who work in the field, along with written and recorded feedback that most programs never get outside of their own region, and a clinic where those same judges walk through what they heard. Students watch other programs from other states run their sets back to back, which gives them a reference point for their work that is hard to build at home. Directors and coaches use that feedback for the rest of the season, and most tell us their groups come back with a clearer sense of where they stand and what to fix.
Custom tours since 1974
Why ET Tours?
No two of our trips look quite the same, because we start with you. Tell us what you’re hoping your group takes away from it, and we’ll shape the trip around that, right down to the dates that work for your calendar.
The planner who quotes your trip stays with you through it. The same person who designs your proposal makes your revisions and can travel with your group on the road. You get one point of contact who knows your trip because they built it with you.
For families, that means a trip run by people who have done this for decades. We’ve been planning group travel for over 50 years, we’re accredited by SYTA, IATAN, ARC, and NTA, and every detail from transportation to accommodations is vetted before your group ever leaves. Our custom pricing is transparent, with no upsells and no surprises, and payment plans are available so cost never has to be the reason anyone stays home.
The Difference a Custom Trip Makes
With a packaged tour, you get a fixed schedule and it’s on you to make your group fit it. We’d rather do it the other way around, building the trip around your group and what they want out of it, so every day feels like it belongs there.
A Few of Our Favorite Trips
Orlando Music Festival
Perform an adjudicated set for a panel of college music educators, sit down for a clinic on what they heard, and spend the rest of the trip in the theme parks before awards night.
Anaheim Spirit Nationals
Compete at the convention center against programs that qualified all fall, train in the days around it, and head to the Southern California parks and the coast once awards are done.
Atlantic City Championship
Take the floor at a December championship, spend time on the boardwalk between warmups and finals, and see the city before heading home.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
FAQs
How do we plan the trip if we do not have a performance time yet?
This is normal, and it is the reason we start with the pieces that book up first. Transportation, rooms, and admissions are held early, and the performance day is left open until the event assigns a time. Once the schedule is released, we place the rest of the days around it and send you the updated itinerary.
Do you register our group for the competition, or do we?
You register directly with the event, since divisions, qualification, and entry all run through the organizer. We handle the travel around it. Send us your registration confirmation and dates, and we will plan from there.
Who books our hotel rooms?
That depends on the event. Some competitions require every group to book through a designated housing company, and in those cases we plan the entire trip around that requirement. For events without a housing rule, we book the rooms ourselves and place your group close to the venue. You will know which applies before you commit to anything.
How far in advance should we start planning?
Most groups come to us nine to twelve months out, which spreads deposits across the school year and gives us the best selection on flights and motorcoaches. Later starts are possible, and shorter timelines usually mean fewer options rather than no trip.
What is included in the price?
Your student’s quote lists exactly what is covered, which typically includes airfare or motorcoach transportation, accommodations, meals, admissions, and competition fees. Because every trip is custom, we make the full inclusions clear before you commit, so students only need spending money for souvenirs and personal extras.
How are students supervised, especially at night?
Your student travels with named tour managers alongside your group’s own chaperones, with vetted transportation and accommodations throughout. Students are placed several to a room, chaperones stay on the same floors, room checks happen at a set time each night, and a 24/7 emergency line reaches our team at any hour.
Can I come along and watch my student compete?
In most cases, yes. Whether the trip includes parents is up to your group leader, so check with them first, and we will help arrange your registration and room once you are confirmed. Spectator admission to the event itself is handled by the organizer and purchased separately.
Safety & Support
Parents, this section is for you. Your student travels with named tour managers, vetted transportation, and vetted accommodations. A 24/7 emergency line reaches our team at any hour of the trip. From enrollment onward we communicate with you directly, so you always know the schedule and who to call. We are accredited by SYTA, IATAN, ARC, and NTA. Full details, insurance information, and our incident protocol are on our Safety page.
Request a custom proposal
Tell us what you teach and where you want to go, we’ll handle everything else.