Super Bowl Village draws visitors from around state, country

It’s cold and raining, but everyone is looking to the sky. Families huddled under umbrellas have faces turned upward, and nobody seems to speak. They’re all waiting and watching.

Then, a low roar ripples through the crowd, and far above, a man and a woman glide down a zip-line strung from a nine-story tower to a platform on the other end of the street, right in front of the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.

The couple begins doing back flips and somersaults in mid-air as the crowd screams  in approval.

For a moment, these zip-liners have managed to capture the attention of the Indianapolis Super Bowl Village.

Hundreds of thousands of people traveled from across the country to Indianapolis to take part in the Super Bowl celebration.

Some of the visitors were a little more local. Kelly King and Lucian Anderson, the two zip-lining crowd-pleasers, traveled from Broad Ripple in Indianapolis.

“This is our third time to do this,” King said after she’d unstrapped from her harness. “It’s just an adrenaline rush. It gets better, and it gets easier, and you have more fun.”

The two of them had been standing in line since 4 a.m. to get tickets to zip-line.

Anderson said they had to come back so that his children could experience it as well.  
“It was so much fun that I said, ‘We’re going to hang out at four in the morning to make sure they get tickets,’” Anderson said.

Aside from the adrenaline, he said the view from the zip-line was also spectacular, particularly while scaling the tower.

“When you’re at the top of the tower, you have an incredible view of Lucas Oil (Stadium). You have an incredible view of the city,” Anderson said.

The village had attractions other than just the zip-line, and it drew people from all over.

While walking through the crowd, snatches of conversation in German and French could be heard along with English. News crews laden with cameras and microphones peppered the mobs of people.

On nearly every street corner, evangelists stood on boxes with megaphones, shouting Bible verses and holding up signs with messages of repentance.

Then there were the scalpers — people selling tickets, and even more people holding signs reading that they needed tickets.

Don Brice, a Bloomington native, ended up selling his tickets to the Super Bowl.

“We’re season ticket holders for the Colts,” Brice said. “We were sitting here with a couple of people ... and they were willing to pay over $2,000 a ticket. And that’s about two and a half times what the tickets cost me.”

Brice came up to visit the village, and he said he was impressed with how Indianapolis handled such a large event.

“I think they did a great job,” he said. “The Super Bowl Village is nice. It’s more for younger people in the evening with bands and stuff. The Super Bowl Experience was more for young kids, a lot of interaction things with the young kids. But it’s nice.”

Indianapolis shut down all of the streets closest to the circle to allow for pedestrian traffic. There was a strong police presence, with groups of officers from various  departments clustered on corners and between barricades to help direct foot traffic.

There were also performers. People on stilts with long red-and-white-striped pants wobbled through the hordes of people. A troupe of college men in blonde wigs and neon track suits waited in line for food. Musicians were out, hoping to make some extra money by performing for passersby.

“Lonie G” is a saxophone player who said he frequently performs in downtown Indianapolis. He decided to perform during Super Bowl weekend, blasting away on his saxophone with its case open at his feet. Every couple of minutes, at least one person would drop a dollar or two into it.

He said he’s earned more than usual with the extra crowds.

“I would say there’s more people out enjoying themselves today,” he said. “People are out here having a wonderful time.”

Despite the weather, people still decided to visit the village Saturday. The city provided heating stations with heat lamps where people could stand to keep warm and to stay out of the drizzle.

Still, for many, the Super Bowl Village being so close to home proved to be an opportunity not to be passed up, rain or sun. This was the case with the zip-liners, King and Anderson.

They said they hadn’t planned on coming back for the actual Super Bowl weekend, but they couldn’t stay away.

“We said we weren’t coming down,” King said. “We’re not ever going to get any sleep. We might actually not hit the beds until tomorrow at 10.”