500 Festival Parade

Pine is the latest addition to a 2016 roster of Indy 500 celebrities that so far includes Keith Urban, Darius Rucker, and homegrown Voice champ Josh Kaufman.

Saturday in downtown Indianapolis, the 500 Festival Parade featured floats, fans, celebrities, and plenty of excitement as the city gets in the mood for the 2015 Indianapolis 500. Notables in attendance included Pacers Paul George and Frank Vogel, Indy 500 drivers Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon, and former Colt and restaurateur Gary Brackett.  

Spectators can expect to see a lot of familiar faces, according to a list of celebrities and notables released this morning.

Only by winning a major (non-athletic) contest does one force Andrew Luck to play second fiddle during this parade, but Josh Kaufman did just that.

Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee, no stranger to controversy and ever the huckster, even left his car at one point to take a photo with a fan sporting a shirt with McAfee’s “Boomstick” moniker emblazoned on it. And that was just about the biggest “incident” of the event, which was otherwise marked by periodic stop-and-go float traffic—horse droppings, you know.

The honor comes during a busy month for the team, many of whose players are returning from overseas stints with other clubs for the start of the 2013 WNBA season in San Antonio on May 24.

The stars aligned for the 500 Festival parade, which promised a fairly high celebrity quotient and did not disappoint. Floats and cars, bands and marchers—they all moved swimmingly along the route that started on Pennsylvania Street downtown, wounded around Washington Street and Monument Circle, and then proceeded up Meridian Street.

Who: Rick Spingfield. Gig: Rock star/Soap hunk. Age: 62. Show-stopper: The ‘80s heartthrob (“Jessie’s Girl,” General Hospital) is back on TV and he’s working on a new album, Love Songs for the End of the World. Tomorrow, he joins the 500 Festival Parade and headlines the annual Snakepit Ball. Today, he broke one his own song’s rules: He talked to a stranger (IM).

“Let’s Get Cylindrical”? “Speed is the word”? Whatever the theme could be, word came over this past weekend that multi-slash performer Olivia Newton-John—the actress/singer/activist/ survivor/author—will serve as the grand marshal of the Indianapolis 500 parade on May 26 in the city’s downtown. The event, which had grand marshal Anderson Cooper last year, draws as many as 300,000 parade-goers.

What makes this Columbus institution really sweet is the counter-side charm of Wilma Hare and her fellow soda jerks, who will pull you an ice cream soda the way it was in 1900 and serve it with a side of sass: “When that ice cream hits the carbonation, it will explode like a volcano. And I will laugh at the look of panic on your face.”