Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

This year marked the sixth time my wife and I attended the Indianapolis 500 Festival Parade in downtown Indianapolis. It’s an annual date-day tradition for us —- partly to see the floats and high school marching bands, partly for the famous names and partly because I love the sight of a bustling downtown Indianapolis. The next six entries (to be posted over the next few days as quickly as time and attention span permit) represent a fraction of the pics my wife and I snapped. In many cases, encores and additional takes of specific subjects may be available if anyone out there is interested in seeing more, or is looking for a loved one who was in one of the many marching bands that day. For first-time MCC visitors, please note my wife and I are relative amateurs, absolutely not trained professional photographers, sharing these from a hobbyist standpoint because fun and joy.

In this entry: the full rundown on all the marching bands that performed in this year’s parade, including several from other states, who brought us the gift of music and an occasional smile when the long walk wasn’t getting them down. My wife was in high school marching band once, remembers those drawbacks all too well, feels your pain, and appreciates your sacrifice and talents.

Super-special note: if you’re in, or know someone who’s in, one of the following bands and would like to see more photos of them, please let us know. Either leave me a note in the comments section below or use the “Contact MCC!” form located up in the masthead. We’re used to receiving a few such requests every year and we’re more than happy to help out band members and their supporters. Between the two of us, though, we took over 700 photos this year. I’m not going into photo overkill mode and uploading hundreds of extra pics until and unless I know someone besides us is genuinely invested in any of them. Not all of them are pro quality, but there’re a few keepers.

The following marching bands performed at the 2016 Indianapolis 500 Festival Parade, and in the order presented here, two shots for each musical act. Non-musical marching acts will be showcased in Part 5.

(As always, photos are clickable for enlargement and resolution and such. Enjoy!)

Marching a few minutes early as a sort of parade pre-show: the Ingersoll Pipe Band, a Canadian bagpipers’ troupe. [UPDATED 6/18/2016: a small, separate Flickr album has now been set up for all five photos from this subset.]

The Purdue University “All-American” Marching Band featuring the World’s Largest Drum. The finger-quotes are theirs, not mine.

The Indianapolis Public Schools All-City Marching Band.

The James B. Conant High School Cougar Marching Band (Hoffman Estates, IL).

The Crestview High School Big Red Machine (Crestview, FL).

Hailing from the high school my wife and I attended, Indianapolis’ own Ben Davis Marching Giants.

The Indiana All-Star Band, comprising top students from various Hoosier high schools. [UPDATED 6/2/2016: By request, a separate Flickr album has now been set up for all the photos from this subset.]

The Northeastern High School Marching Knights (Fountain City, IN).

The Noblesville High School Marching Millers (Noblesville, IN).

The Beech Grove Marching Hornets (Beech Grove, IN) and Edgewood Marching Mustangs (Ellettsville, IN) in a very special band team-up jam session.

The Sumner High School Spartan Marching Band (Sumner, WA). [UPDATED 5/30/2016: By request in the Comments section, a separate Flickr album has now been set up for all the photos from this subset.]

The South Spencer High School Marching Rebels (Rockport, IN).

The Castle High School Marching Knights (Newburgh, IN).

The Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps of Casper, WY — a band we’ve seen so many times at the 500 Festival Parade that we recognized them on sight even without a sign preceding them.

The Elkhart Memorial High School Crimson Charger Command (Elkhart, IN — speak of the devil!).

Speedway High School’s Speedway 500 Regiment Band of Speedway, Indiana, on behalf of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Hampton High School Marching Band (Allison Park, PA).

…and the thirsty guy in the final photo was just saying what we were all thinking.

To be continued! Links to other chapters in this annual MCC miniseries are listed below. Follow us on Facebook or via email signup for new-entry alerts, or over on Twitter if you want to track my TV live-tweeting and other signs of life between entries. Thanks for stopping by!

Part 1: The 33 Drivers in Your Starting Lineup
Part 2: This Year’s Guests
Part 4: Floats and Balloons
Part 5: Random Acts of Parading
Part 6: Before the Music