Scheduling
From 1983 through 2007, State Finals was typically scheduled for either the seventh or eighth Saturday after Labor Day (depending on how early in September Labor Day fell), with Regionals being the Saturday prior and District two or three Saturdays before Regionals. An open weekend was allotted between District and Regionals should a change of date for District be necessitated by inclement weather (should it not be needed, it was typically filled with unsanctioned invitational competitions); however, no such weekend was allotted between Regionals and State Finals due to the difficulty of securing venues for the final two stages of competition. The weekends prior to District, generally beginning with the first Saturday after Labor Day, were used for various unsanctioned invitational competitions organized by high schools and, occasionally, colleges or other independent organizations.
Beginning in 2008, State Finals was pushed back to the first Saturday in November, on the ninth Saturday after Labor Day. The move was necessitated by the decision of the administrators of the Indiana Convention Center (directly adjacent to the brand-new Lucas Oil Stadium that would be used by the Marching Band State Finals) to schedule the Future Farmers of America National Convention on the weekend that had historically been used for State Finals. To create a truer top ten bands from around the state, ISSMA created the semi-state round. Previously, it was merely the top five from each of the regions. The schedule up to and including Regionals weekend remains the same.
Read more about this topic: Indiana Marching Band State Finals