Two days, 93 bands, one South Lot
The Bands of America Indianapolis Super Regional Championship runs October 16-17, 2026 at Lucas Oil Stadium, 500 S Capitol Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46225. Music for All operates the championship.
The organiser's participating-bands list, updated 22 September 2026, carries 93 bands from 10 states. Sixty perform on the Friday and 33 on the Saturday. The venue listing carries the same weekend, and it opens the ticket office at 6:45 a.m., the North Gate at 7:00 a.m., and the prelims at 7:00 a.m.
Gate 10 off McCarty Street
Music for All publishes one performance parking route. Enter the South Lot of Lucas Oil Stadium through Gate 10 off McCarty Street, and display a BOA parking pass at all times. Gate 1 carries the truck unload and reload for the South Lot and the prop exit into the Missouri Street lane closure. Gate 8 is the bus and truck exit.
Spectator parking through Gates 6 and 7 carries two published figures. The venue listing prices it at 25 dollars on a first-come basis. The organiser's site overview map prices the same lots at 20 dollars a car with no in-and-out.
The pass, the two-hour window and the 75-minute exit
A parking pass costs 35 dollars a vehicle. Buses and equipment trucks each need one. The pass form counts any vehicle that carries or tows equipment as a truck, so a band with one bus and one truck orders two passes at 70 dollars.
Two timings govern the day. Vehicles may enter the South Lot no earlier than two hours before the performance time on the prelims schedule. Vehicles must exit one hour and 15 minutes after the start of that performance. The two timings give a vehicle a three-hour and 15-minute window in the lot.
BOA staff meet arriving drivers with parking instructions on site. The parking lots take no eating, no warm-up and no stretching. BOA provides no bus driver hospitality areas.
Where the bus sleeps
The South Lot takes no overnight parking. The non-performance lot is the IFA Event Lot 650 at 542 Abbott Street, a short walk from the stadium. Groups may park there at no charge from 7:00 a.m. on the Friday until 6:00 a.m. on the Sunday, and every vehicle must vacate by that Sunday hour.
Last-block bands on the Friday and the Saturday may leave their trucks in the South Lot until the end of prelims that day. Every other band relocates to the IFA lot one hour and 15 minutes after its performance start. Band re-entry from the IFA lot runs through the South Gate.
Credentials and check-in
Each band receives 31 credentials for the adults working with it. The set is 6 laminate name badges and 25 field passes, and the registration fee covers it. A band may buy 10 more credentials for a total of 41, and those purchases close 30 days before the event by credit card only.
Band check-in sits inside the southeast entrance on the main concourse. It opens 30 minutes after the first parking lot arrival, and on the Friday it runs until the last Friday band checks in, typically 7:00 p.m. It closes when the last band enters the southwest tunnel. The packet carries the final schedule, the participant segment patches and the event credentials.
Boxed meals and the 10-day order
Music for All and Potbelly Sandwich Works offer individual boxed meals. A combo carries an entree, Baked Lays and two mini oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. The Skinny Classic combo runs 7.69 dollars and the 8 inch Original Classic combo runs 10.19 dollars. A gluten-free farmhouse with chicken and a vegan veggie powerhouse each run 10.19 dollars, and a 16 ounce water bottle runs 1.99 dollars. A flat 29 dollar delivery fee applies to each order, and Potbelly delivers to the band's point of contact at the show site.
The two documents carry two ordering windows. The logistics page and the Potbelly information sheet ask for the order form 10 days before event day. The order form itself asks for no less than 7 days prior, and it directs any order inside that window to a phone call. Contact is Megan Coss at 847-954-7125 or megan.coss@potbelly.com.
The stadium admits no outside food or beverage, and it cannot store food or drink for a group. The concourse clears during the dinner break between prelims and finals, so a band that stays for finals needs a meal plan that survives a closed concession area.
Rooms for the convoy
The stadium's Hotels and Lodging link carries a property list with a distance from Lucas Oil Stadium for each entry. On a 23 September 2026 read the four nearest are the Holiday Inn Indianapolis Downtown at 0.03 miles, the Holiday Inn Express and Suites Downtown at 0.08, the Marriott Indianapolis Downtown at 0.40 and the JW Marriott Indianapolis at 0.46.
Run the room maths before the call. A 60 member band in doubles is 30 rooms a night, so the Friday and Saturday are 60 room nights. At a labeled example nightly rate of 200 dollars that is 12,000 dollars before any group rate, 10,200 dollars at 15 percent off and 7,200 dollars at 40 percent off. The list publishes no nightly figure for a property without dates, so the example rate is the group's own input.
bookMyTeam publishes a group rate for a block of 10 or more rooms per night, and some hotels discount from as few as 5 rooms depending on season and availability. Group rates typically run 15 to 40 percent below the Best Available Rate. One request reaches 50 or more hotels in the destination, and replies typically arrive within 24 to 72 hours. There is no fee, and the group pays the hotel directly. Start at the request form and size the block with how it works.
Saturday October 17 is a contested night. The Indianapolis Colts host the Tennessee Titans at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday October 18 at 1:00 p.m. Downtown carries 7,100 hotel rooms and 4,700 skywalk-connected rooms on the venue's published figures.
What to put in the rate request
Four property-level facts sit unpublished for every hotel on the list: the bed configurations the block holds, breakfast hours on an event morning, coach and van parking, and whether one floor can be held for students. Write all four into the request.
