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Recommendations for finals attendance rookie?


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I was essentially a rookie to Nationals last year since I hadn’t been to finals in 20 years, and had never been to Indy.  Here’s my take;

Indy has great neighborhoods to visit with lots of shops and restaurants.

The scooters are cool for moving about, but be careful.

I sat up high in LOS for semis and it was chilly and breezy.  The AC was cranking.  
The souvie area can empty your wallet, come prepared.

A concession line I was in took forever.  Very slow service.

stroll through the corps staging area in the lot.  It’s fine to watch the mm’s prep.

learn the entrances and exits at LOS or you can walk a mile just getting in and out of there at the start and end of a long day.

Go to bars and restaurants where other posters suggest.  That’s the most fun.  I met a former Argonaut who knew a past legendary drum instructor who had been with my old corps and his 30 years prior.  It is a small world.

visit Gate 10 after each show.  Ask around for it.

Find where your favorite corps is housed and rehearsing and visit a rehearsal if you can.

Have fun.

 

 

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23 hours ago, Triple Forte said:

Looks like no one weighed in yet regarding warmups.  Just be aware this is as of last season. Things change so you probably want to validate some of this. Just about every corps warms up at military park. DCI has a shuttle service (Free) that can shuttle anyone to the stadium from military park. I don’t know wha exactly happens in the event of bad weather other than they move the warmups indoors to the convention center. Food wise not much to be had at military park but there was a TGIF in a hotel about maybe a qtr mile away...a lil  bit of a walk but not bad.   If I think of more I’ll post more 😊

Thanks for the tip on the shuttle.  I went last year for the first time but never went to military park because i can’t walk that far!  (Old broken vertebrae in my spine!).  I would imagine that if the shuttle will bring you back to the stadium, it will also take you from the staidum to the park?  Now i just have to find out where the pick up/drop off spot is.  Thanks for sharing!

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2 hours ago, LabMaster said:

I was essentially a rookie to Nationals last year since I hadn’t been to finals in 20 years, and had never been to Indy.  Here’s my take;

Indy has great neighborhoods to visit with lots of shops and restaurants.

The scooters are cool for moving about, but be careful.

I sat up high in LOS for semis and it was chilly and breezy.  The AC was cranking.  
The souvie area can empty your wallet, come prepared.

A concession line I was in took forever.  Very slow service.

stroll through the corps staging area in the lot.  It’s fine to watch the mm’s prep.

learn the entrances and exits at LOS or you can walk a mile just getting in and out of there at the start and end of a long day.

Go to bars and restaurants where other posters suggest.  That’s the most fun.  I met a former Argonaut who knew a past legendary drum instructor who had been with my old corps and his 30 years prior.  It is a small world.

visit Gate 10 after each show.  Ask around for it.

Find where your favorite corps is housed and rehearsing and visit a rehearsal if you can.

Have fun.

 

 

I was dodging those scooters in Atlanta and Indy.  There’s a Twitter page devoted to Chicago scooter hatred.  They post photos of them in trees, garbage cans, etc.  hilarious. 

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I'm thinking about going to finals for the first time since 2011 (which I disliked so much I didn't go back for 8 years so far).  Everybody's telling me I gotta get back out to an actual show.  All my old drum corps fan-friends have moved out of Ohio though.  I'd like to take my 9-year old son, but I know he'll get bored pretty quickly.  Are there any good hotels nearby that aren't too expensive?  I am half night-blind at can't drive at night to a suburban hotel.

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Go watch I&E performances at the convention center.  You're able to get a sense of the individual instead of the corps, if that makes sense. 

Regardless of where your actual seats are,   try and sit in the blast zone during prelims and possibly semi finals(rows 6 through 20, on the 50 yl) lots of empty seats....if someone shows up,  just move to another empty seat.  Many corps members do exactly this. 

 

 

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16 minutes ago, Metalbinky said:

Go watch I&E performances at the convention center.  You're able to get a sense of the individual instead of the corps, if that makes sense. 

Regardless of where your actual seats are,   try and sit in the blast zone during prelims and possibly semi finals(rows 6 through 20, on the 50 yl) lots of empty seats....if someone shows up,  just move to another empty seat.  Many corps members do exactly this. 

 

 

Just not 140 row 1 seat 11. 

Edited by Terri Schehr
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4 hours ago, Metalbinky said:

Regardless of where your actual seats are,   try and sit in the blast zone during prelims and possibly semi finals(rows 6 through 20, on the 50 yl) lots of empty seats....if someone shows up,  just move to another empty seat.  Many corps members do exactly this. 

 

 

Yeah, do this! No one ever gets ###### off because you are sitting in their seats and then have to deal with poachers!  We just laugh and laugh and never talk about what an ######## you are, or take note of your corps jacket to see whose corps is being represented so well. And don’t worry, I would never take a picture of you being ejected from my seat and then post it to social media.

Edited by Jurassic Lancer
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