Parade Day

 

May 30, 2022

 

Parade Day

Since 1957 the Saturday prior to the Indianapolis 500 has been the day of the 500 Festival Parade, an event which is as much a part of the annual 500 tradition as about anything. The 500 Festival Parade is one of the original events of the 500 Festival, which was formed to help the city celebrate the annual race with a series of events that complement and add to the fun and excitement of Indianapolis during the month of May.

The 500 Festival Parade is one of the nation’s largest, most-respected parades, consistently earning national acclaim alongside the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. More than 200,000 people line the streets of downtown Indianapolis to experience the larger-than-life floats, giant helium balloons, celebrities and dignitaries, award-winning bands, and all 33 drivers competing in the Indy 500.

I have no idea how many parades that I haver attended. When we were kids, my father would always take my sisters and myself to watch the parade out of the window of his office at the Indianapolis Star where he worked. As I got older, I had friends that would be appearing in the parade as parts of various school bands or as part of the 500 festivals, then there was a fallow period through college and my early 20s when I sort of skipped the parade.

But once I started bringing friends from Key West and beyond to attend the race, I have pretty regularly taken them to see the parade, which is just part of the weekend of fun that makes up the Indy 500 experience. With Matt, Deb and James all experiencing the race for the first time, the parade was a must experience event. Also, Kathy loves the parade and she always enjoys attending.

I am never organized enough to purchase grand-stand tickets, but it is easy to find a spot along the parade route and watch the myriad of floats, bands and more pass by. This years theme, “Back to Traditions, Racing Forward” celebrated the return tom the in-person parade after a couple of years off thanks to the Covid pandemic.

The parade this year was pretty much a return to normal, there seemed to be fewer giant balloons and celebrities, but no one seemed to care much, the weather was beautiful and the parade was fun as usual. Matt and Deb really wanted to have lunch at St. Elmo’s but when we got there after the parade, it was closed for a private function so we ended up beating the crowds at their sister restaurant, Harry and Izzy’s where we all were able to experience the world famous shrimp cocktails. 

After a walking tour of downtown, we were headed to what is another tradition, the annual Calcutta event that my friends have hosted for years, where the drivers for the Indy 500 are auctioned off and whoever gets the drivers winning or placing in the top three or last wins a portion of the total pot. Like last year, when a slightly younger version of friends began organizing the Calcutta, the event was first class. 

It was held in the same bar/restaurant Revolution in Broad Ripple with free food and a huge crowd of well-heeled participants that basically bid us out of participating as the drivers were going for huge amounts of money and the total pot approached 60,000 dollars. It was still fun to see so many of my friends and to expose my visitors to what the Calcutta entails. I am thinking that next year, we should scale back and start our own friends Calcutta that is more affordable.

Our final stop was at my friend’s Rick and Becky’s annual Crawfish Boil block party. This event has become a huge part of my race weekend in the 20 or so years they have been holding it. Though I once used to know almost all of the people there, it has continued to grow in size and scope and now there are tons of people that I don’t know, which is fine.

There is still plenty of food and beer provided by my friend Kevin at Twenty Tap, he always provides some of the tasty brews that he makes literally in the basement of his tap room, Twenty Below. Many of the people at the event, I see all of one time a year, at this event, but it is so great to have so many friends in one place and I have literally watched many of my friends children grow up before my eyes by seeing them once a year at the crawfish boil.

Kathy loves the event, because she is a crawfish lover and she consumes many pounds of crawfish each year on her own, Rick and Becky always order 100s of pounds of live crawfish from Louisiana and with the crowds getting larger each year, they order more and more.

Last year they provided a live musician and this year a full band performed to entertain the crowd, It was another awesome event and one that I truly look forward to every year. We didn’t stay terribly late as we had yet another early morning on race day, but it was plenty enough time for great food and friends.