MaestroC

My family has tickets to the Thursday prelims and will be staying at the Embassy Suites a few blocks away within walking distance to Lucas Oil Stadium. It's our first time going after seeing only small local events with only a few corps. My questions are: 1) Will there be other performances or events going on around the stadium during the day? I know there will be a place for merch sales, but other than that are there other activities (official or unofficial) in the area that coincide with the stuff in the stadium on Wednesday or Thursday? 2) Will the corps be warming up in the general vicinity of the stadium the way they did at our local event? The kids enjoyed standing in the lot and watching/listening to the warmups since you get a lot closer to things. Are there any unwritten rules about this kind of thing? 3) Is there anything else we should know ahead of time or be sure to do while we are there? We will arrive on Wednesday, have all day Thursday. 4) I have a feeling some of the family will not want to spend as much time in the stadium as others but all of the tickets are on my phone in the ticketmaster account. If two of us want to walk back to the hotel for a while and then come back in the evening while the others stay at the stadium longer how will that work for getting them back in the gate? Thank you for any answers you might be able to provide!