An Audience of 40,000

Yes, it’s true. I played in front almost 40,000 people in downtown Indianapolis this morning. I kept playing, and they just kept moving through.

Over 35,000 people participated in the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon this morning, and another 4,000 took on the Finish Line 500 Festival 5K. Race organizers station entertainers along the course so that race participants have constant music to encourage them along the way. I was thrilled to have both groups come by my position on Washington St.

As you can see in the video, Doc Blossom made the trip downtown and enjoyed watching the race. It was great to see friends pass by and wave. Race participants really seemed to appreciate the music. Thumbpicking must be good running music.

I had planned to post a video with live sound from the race, but my station had a generator for power. You could hear the music on the video, but from the angle we were using, the generator is pretty prominent. It wasn’t on pitch, and I don’t really know how to tune one of those suckers.

We did take several pictures, though, and so here’s a collage of some pictures and video clips, the race from my perspective. It’s set to my recording of Back Home Again in Indiana. That song was really popular with the race participants.

[weaver_youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMbXj6nnWJw]