Celebrate Memorial Day weekend Downtown!

Prepare:
• Plan your driving and walking route into and through Downtown ahead of time.
• Use interstates to travel to and leave Downtown.
• Enter Downtown from the side on which you plan to park.
• Allow plenty of extra travel time to Downtown.
• Be aware that travel through Downtown will be limited to streets away from the core area.
• Relax during peak exit times.
• Wear comfortable shoes, park once and enjoy the walk.
• Carpool or use IndyGo if possible. IndyGo will operate on a special holiday schedule on Memorial Day, please visit www.indygo.net for more details or to download a bus schedule.

• Downtown parking is abundant. There are more than 70,000 parking spaces Downtown.
• Log onto www.indydt.com for Downtown maps with attraction and parking information. Print out the map and bring it with you.
• Select a couple of parking alternatives before you leave home.
• Plan to use a garage or lot. Most meters near the event sites are restricted during this time.
• Some parking facilities and lots may not be open to the public.
• Parking meters will be FREE on Monday, May 26.

May 24
Don’t miss the IPL 500 Festival Parade featuring celebrities, costumed characters, breathtaking floats, marching bands, giant balloons and the 33 starting drivers of the Indianapolis 500 including Danica Patrick, Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves. Actress Patricia Heaton will serve as the 2008 Grand Marshall.

Visit the Indianapolis Zoo’s newest exhibit: Koalas, featuring two charming koalas on loan from San Diego through Labor Day weekend. The Zoo will be open on Memorial Day.

Visit The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis to explore the science behind the art of Animation, the exhibit will run through January 2009. The Children’s Museum will be open on Memorial Day.

May 25
The 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 will start at 1 p.m. at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Other Downtown opportunities
If you happen to be strolling Mass Ave this weekend, stop to see the 7th Annual Mass Ave Artful Tread, an annual tire decorating contest among Mass Ave merchants in honor of Indianapolis’ racing heritage and May’s racing events. Tires will be up for the month of May.

The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art presents Yosemite: Art of an American Icon through August 9. Visit www.eiteljorg.com for more details. The Indiana State Museum is hosting Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting through August 24. Visit www.indianamuseum.org for more information. The IMAX Theatre continues showings of Hurricane on the Bayou, Dolphins & Whales Tribes of the Ocean and Shine A Light- Rolling Stones directed by Martin Scorsese. Visit www.imaxindy.com for show times and additional information. The Indiana Historical Society is featuring You Are There: 1945 Hoosier Home Front through Dec. 31. Visit www.indianahistory.com for more details. The Indianapolis Museum of Art continues Simply Halston and On Procession. Log on to www.ima-indy.com for additional information. The Indiana Historical Society and the Indianapolis Museum of Art will both be closed for Memorial Day.

Catch a show this Memorial Day weekend
American Cabaret Theatre continues Victor/Victoria through June 1 and the Phoenix Theatre presents Our Dad is in Atlantis/Papa Papa Esta en le Atlantida through June 8. Theatre on the Square is showing Five Course Love through June 14. Don’t miss the world’s longest-running musical The Fantasticks at the Indiana Repertory Theatre now through June 22.