The Saturday the Groups Book
Forty-two Indiana high school marching bands perform at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday, 7 November 2026. The venue dates the ISSMA Open Class State Marching Band Finals to a 9:30 a.m. start and an 11:59 p.m. close. This is the 53rd year for the finals, and the stadium has held them every year since it opened.
The party behind each band is the party the hotels see. ISSMA's own release counts 176 Indiana high school marching bands across the season's Festival, Scholastic and Open classes, and the finals field is the 42 bands that qualify through the Regional and Semi-State rounds.
Sixty-Four Properties, Ranked by Distance
The venue's Hotels & Lodging link leads to a Visit Indy list titled "Lucas Oil Stadium Hotels". The list carries 64 properties, every one tagged Indianapolis, and ranks each by distance from the stadium. The distances run from 0.03 miles to 9.97 miles. Each card footnote reads "Actual driving distance may vary".
Twenty-one of the 64 sit within 0.62 miles of 500 South Capitol Avenue. Thirty-one sit within a mile. Twenty-nine sit at five miles or more.
The closest is the Holiday Inn Indianapolis Downtown at 0.03 miles. The Marriott Indianapolis Downtown and the TownePlace Suites both read 0.40, the JW Marriott 0.46, and the Hyatt Regency and the Homewood Suites 0.53. Conrad Indianapolis and the Hyatt Place Indianapolis Downtown close the walkable band at 0.62 miles each.
No card carries a rate. Every one reads "Please enter dates to see rates", and the list holds no teaser rate on any of the 64 records. A group asking for 7 November pricing gets the number from the property.
The Group Ticket Route
ISSMA publishes four purchase routes for the finals, and one of them is built for groups. A participating band gets a limited-time group purchase of mobile tickets with no added fees, arranged through its director.
Ticketmaster adds $7.75 per ticket and caps an order at 50 tickets. The stadium ticket office sells in advance in person on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., takes credit cards with matching photo ID, and takes no cash or checks.
Admission is $30.00 for adults and $25.00 for students and children, before fees. Two adults and two students pay $110.00 at face value, or $141.00 through Ticketmaster. Printed tickets are not used, and every ticket arrives on a phone and shows at the gate.
Where the Coach Goes
The stadium's facility guide routes oversize parking through the operator. Denison Parking runs all CIB-owned lots, including 1,500 on-site surface spaces at Lucas Oil Stadium, and the guide gives Denison's number as (317) 916-1760 for special parking needs.
The same guide counts more than 9,400 public and private spaces around the stadium and the convention centre, plus 40,000 within a ten-block radius.
What the Organiser Has Not Published
The band-by-band running order is not out. The venue page sends readers to issma.net, and ISSMA's marching band page lists schedules for the Festival Class, the Scholastic Prelims and Open Invitational, and the Open Class Regionals.
The State Finals schedule appears on none of those pages. ISSMA's 2025-2026 rule changes settle the class order, and it is C, B, D, A. Four State Class Champion bands leave with the title.