page_title: Indianapolis 500 traditions
section_title: 500 Festival Parade
hierarchical_section_title: Indianapolis 500 traditions / Month of May / 500 Festival Parade
caption_attribution_description: 500 Festival - Balloons in 2011 IPL 500 Festival Parade Photo Credit Visit Indy
context_page_description: Due to the longevity of the Indianapolis 500, numerous traditions surrounding the race have developed over the years. Traditions include procedures for the running of the race, scheduling, and pre-race and post-race festivities. For many fans, these traditions are an important aspect of the race, and they have often reacted quite negatively when the traditions are changed or broken.
  As part of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the pre-race ceremonies of the Indianapolis 500 feature several patriotic songs. Like most other sporting events, the national anthem is performed before the race by a notable vocalist. The most noteworthy and most popular traditions are the annual singing of "Back Home Again in Indiana," and the victory lane bottle of milk.
context_section_description: The 500 Festival is a non-profit organization founded in 1957 to organize various civic events in the city of Indianapolis leading up to the race. The two largest events are the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in early May, and the 500 Festival Parade the day before the race. Other events have included "Community Day" at the track, memorial services, luncheons, and the annual Snake Pit Ball, a black tie socialite gathering downtown.
  In many years, the parade grand marshal has been a celebrity with ties to Indiana or the Indianapolis area, particularly Indianapolis-area sports figures. In many cases, the grand marshal of the parade is also honored during pre-race festivities on race morning. The organizing committee boasts the parade as one of the largest in the nation. In 1997, a fire swept through the storage hangar housing the floats for that year's parade, threatening to cancel the event. Only four floats were spared, and Buddy Lazier's 1996 winning car escaped the fire only because the museum had decided to wait a few extra days before delivering it to the float staging area. The parade went on as scheduled, but in a slightly retooled format.
  The grand marshals for the annual parade have been as follows:
  1957 Lt. Gen. G. W. Arnold
  1958 Shirley MacLaine
  1959
  1960 Gen. David M. Shoup, Indiana native, Medal of Honor recipient, 22nd USMC Commandant
  1961 Lt. Gen. Joe W. Kelly, Indiana native, DFC recipient, 5th MATS Commander
  1962 Gen. Herbert B. Powell
  1963 Lt. Gen. Charles G. Dodge, Commanding General 5th U.S Army, Ft Sheridan, Illinois
  1964
  1965 James Stewart
  1966 Walter Cronkite
  1967 Lorne Greene, Dan Blocker, Michael Landon
  1968 Ambassadors from Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador
  1969 Manuel Fraga Iribarne
  1970 Edie Adams
  1971 George W. Romney, John Arthur Love, Carl Stokes
  1972 Phil Harris
  1973 James H. Kasler
  1974 Mickey Mouse
  1975 Peter DePaolo, winner 1925 Indianapolis 500 (driver); winner 1935 Indianapolis 500 (team owner)
  1976 Tony Hulman & Bob Hope
  1977 William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
  1978 Roy Clark
  1979 Gerald Ford
  1980 Mike Douglas
  1981 Joyce DeWitt (grew up in Speedway, Indiana, graduated from Speedway Senior High School)
  1982 Merlin Olsen
  1983 Joseph P. Allen (Crawfordsville, Indiana native)
  1984 David Hasselhoff
  1985 Mickey Mouse
  1986 Jerry L. Ross
  1987 Mario Vázquez Raña
  1988 Jim Davis and Garfield (Davis is a native and lifelong resident of Indiana)
  1989 Gene Autry
  1990 Dan Quayle (sitting Vice President of the United States, an Indiana native)
  1991 A. J. Foyt and Mary Fendrich Hulman (Foyt was planning to retire after the 1991 race, but recanted); General Norman Schwarzkopf was designated the grand marshal of the race itself.
  1992 Mickey & Minnie
  1993 Larry Bird (Indiana native)
  1994 Mario Andretti and Bonnie Blair (Andretti was retiring at season's end, and 1994 would be his final Indy 500)
  1995 A. J. Foyt, Rick Mears, Al Unser, Sr. (the three four-time Indy 500 winners)
  1996 Jim Davis & Garfield
  1997 Cam Cameron, Bob Davie, Joe Tiller (at the time the head coaches of the state's three Division I-A college football programs)
  1998 David Wolf (Indianapolis native)
  1999 Medal of Honor Recipients
  2000 Jim Nabors
  2001 Five Public Safety Agencies of Indianapolis
  2002 Jim Caviezel
  2003 Wynonna Judd
  2004 Jane Pauley (Indianapolis native)
  2005 Reggie Miller (retired after an 18-year NBA career, spent entirely with the Indiana Pacers, days earlier)
  2006 Lance Armstrong (this was before the 2012 doping scandal)
  2007 Peyton Manning (won Super Bowl XLI MVP with Indianapolis Colts)
  2008 Patricia Heaton
  2009 Dick Vitale
  2010 Butler University Men's Basketball Team
  2011 Anderson Cooper
  2012 Olivia Newton-John
  2013 Indiana Fever (defending WNBA champions)
  2014 Josh Kaufman and Jim Nabors (celebrating Nabors' final 500 performance of "Back Home Again in Indiana")
  2015 Members of 1955 Crispus Attucks High School State Champion basketball team and cheerleaders
  2016 Emma Stumpf
  2017 Eva Mozes Kor
  2018 Abby Abel & Mitch Bonar (celebrating Champions Together; Special Olympics Unified Sports)
  2019 Sam Schmidt
  2020: Cancelled du
caption: The 500 Festival Parade is one of the nation's largest, regularly drawing 300,000 spectators.[19]
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