Writer / Seth Johnson Photography Provided by the 500 Festival
Every year, the 500 Festival and its correlating events impact 500,000 people. With such a massive reach, the humble festival team relies heavily on help from devoted volunteers to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. From a mini-marathon to a world-class parade, the 500 Festival executes about 50 different events each year. Of course, the point of these events is to celebrate the spirit and legacy of the Indianapolis 500, the world’s greatest spectacle in racing. “The 500 Festival dates back to 1957,” says
Sabrina List, 500 Festival vice president of marketing and communication. “It was actually started by a group of volunteers that were involved within the community that thought, ‘Every year, we host this big race, the Indy 500. There should be more that the community should be doing in coming together and celebrating it.’”
So in 1957, the 500 Festival was born.
The idea for the festival was actually prompted by a similar festival in Kentucky that was created to celebrate the Kentucky Derby, aptly named the Kentucky Derby Festival. “The Kentucky Derby Festival is an organization that’s similar to ours,” List says. “They thought, ‘Look, they do this in Kentucky. We should do something similar.’”
While they may no longer have a square dance, the annual parade now draws hundreds of thousands of people to Downtown Indianapolis every year. In addition to this grand event, there are also several other affiliated 500 Festival occurrences, including a mini-marathon, Kid’s Day and much more. In total, the festival relies on 7,000 volunteers to make
16 / GEIST MAGAZINE / MAY 2018 / atGeist.com
“It all started with our parade, believe it or not,” List says. “They got together, and they said, ‘Alright, let’s throw a parade, and then we’ll also have a square dance.’ So that’s how it all started and it all came together, with a parade and a square dance.”