Get in step for this year's Festival Days parade

From the Havre Chamber

The Festival Days Parade will make its way up Fifth Avenue Saturday, Sept. 17. The parade is always the highlight of the weekend, and as in years past the parade route will be heavily populated with spectators.

Parade entries are scheduled to head north on Fifth Avenue from Rod's Drive-In at 10 a.m.

The parade will continue north on Fifth Avenue to Fourth Street, turn east on Fourth Street to Seventh Avenue and the area around Pepin Park to disassemble the parade.

Large equipment, trucks and trailers will leave the parade at Fourth Street and Fifth Avenue by continuing north on Fifth Avenue and getting into normal traffic flow. The parade officially ends at Seventh Avenue by Pepin Park. Friends and family can meet parade participants at Pepin Park and the area around the park. Participants are asked to proceed to Seventh Avenue and the area around Pepin to disassemble from the parade.

Leading the parade will be a local color guard with representatives from the National Guard. Following the color guard will be MSU-Northern, the 2016 Festival Days sponsor.

The Havre High School marching band is again a part of the parade line - following their trip over the Fourth of July to Washington, D.C. They have been participating in the parade all 36 years Havre Festival Days has been celebrated.

The sounds of bagpipes and drums will again be present in the parade. The South Alberta Pipes and Drums Band has become a special tradition of Festival Days, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Havre Lion's Club.

Entries in the Festival Days Parade will judged for the best commercial, best non-commercial and Mayor's Choice prior to the parade leaving the high school parking lot

Last year's winners were: best commercial, First Rose's File and Style; best noncommercial, North Central Hangar of the Montana Pilots Association, and Mayor's Choice went to HRDC.

The parade line up is under the direction of chamber board members and many loyal community volunteers. The volunteers who help to keep the parade moving along the route are working to keep the parade safe.

Early registration of parade entries is encouraged. People can drop by the Chamber office at 130 Fifth Ave. and fill out a registration form and pick up a copy of the parade guidelines. All entrants are asked to register their entry with the Chamber. To register a float or entry in the parade, contact the chamber at 265-4383. Parade entry registration forms are also available at the Chamber's website, http://www.havrechamber.com - just click on calendar of events. The Chamber asks that an entry form be filled out and returned to the Chamber office by Friday, Sept. 16.

Every entrant is reminded that candy must not be thrown from floats, trucks, cars or other motorized vehicles in the parade. All treats must be thrown onto sidewalks by people walking the parade route. Anyone planning on sharing candy with the parade crowd is asked to provide walkers to throw the candy toward the gutters, and throw no candy from any moving vehicle.