The Big Ten Volleyball tournament — coming to Fishers for the first time this November — will serve as Grand Marshal of the Spark!Fishers parade, headlining a reimagined two-day festival on June 26 and 27. Parks and Recreation Director Marissa Deckert shared the news on the latest episode of the LarryInFishers.com podcast, along with a full preview of what many consider the biggest event on the city’s calendar.
“That’s a huge event coming to Fishers,” Deckert said, noting the tournament will also activate the lawn space at the festival with volleyball-themed photo ops, activations and ways for fans to get involved. The drone show, she added, will tie in nods to both the Grand Marshal and the nation’s 250th celebration.
A new two-day format
The biggest change this year is the schedule itself. After several years of spreading activities across an entire week, the city has condensed everything into Friday and Saturday.
“We kind of went back to basics,” Deckert said. “People are very busy. There are families that are really busy… I don’t want people to have to choose. I want them to have the best of all worlds.” The result, she said, is a denser, more energetic “hometown community feel” packed into two days, with live music, food, art, sports and activities downtown — without losing the pieces that made past festivals popular.
Friday: free concert and drone show
Friday night features a free concert by a Pink tribute band, complete with an aerial performance. “While we can’t afford Pink in person, we have a tribute band, and she is going to be doing an aerial experience at the end,” Deckert said. The night closes with the festival’s signature drone show, now a Spark staple after Fishers was among the first in Central Indiana to stage one.
Saturday: street fair, car and art show, parade and fireworks
Saturday’s events begin at 4 p.m. and run into the evening, bringing together the street fair, the combined car and art show, more than 100 food and art vendors, the parade and a fireworks finale. The parade — roughly 100 units strong — steps off at 7 p.m., but Deckert urged car fans to arrive early: the registered classic vehicles stage on the west side of Municipal at 6:30 p.m. before rolling out 116th Street as a “pre-parade parade.”
This year’s stages — seven entertainment spots, programmed with help from the Fishers Arts Council — carry a Revolutionary War theme courtesy of the city’s communications team. The main amp becomes the George Washington Stage, with the Ben Franklin variety stage, the Paul Revere solo stage, the John Adams duo stage, the Alexander Hamilton rock band showcase, the Liberty Little kids stage and the St. John George Drum Circle, named for George Washington’s drummer boy.
What’s new — and what’s not
The festival is leaning into engagement over standing in line. The Ferris wheel and the giant inflatables of years past are gone. “I want every single person to be engaged all the time and avoid standing in line waiting for one activity,” Deckert said.
In their place: a silent disco with an LED light floor and three DJ channels, drum circles, a thrift-a-thon (an idea born in the Mayor’s Youth Academy) paired with the vintage car show, and a full children’s area featuring a dedicated kids stage, a petting zoo, the Fishers High School robotics team, and life-sized building blocks just north of the Central Green. A showcase of local music schools — School of Rock and Bach to Rock — will perform in the Meijer Niagam lot.
Accessibility, parking and logistics
Spark!Fishers continues its emphasis on sensory inclusivity, offering sensory bags, weighted lap pads, noise-reducing headphones, communication cards and assisted listening devices at the stages — with the goal of keeping families together rather than separating them into a designated hour or area.
Parking and shuttle service have changed this year. The free shuttle now runs from Cross Point Plaza, at the Heavenly Books building on Lantern Road, dropping riders near Hotel Nickel Plate with no break in service throughout the festival.
If you go
- Friday, June 26: Free concert and drone show
- Saturday, June 27: Street fair opens at 4 p.m.; car and art show stages at 6:30 p.m.; parade steps off at 7 p.m.; fireworks finale to close the night
The LarryInFishers.com podcast is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.
Listen to my podcast conversation with Marissa Deckert at this link or the link below.
