Parade season arrives for region

If you are in the mood for a good parade, there will be no shortage of them this Saturday in southern Alberta.

Taber, Enchant and Coaldale will all be having parades to help kick off the early part of July.

Coaldale has its Settler Days and Enchant is holding its 100th birthday celebrations that same day.

“After much discussion, we decided with Enchant, it’s not like they are going to have their 100th birthday every year so we wanted to keep being consistent with what we were doing,” said Matt Williams, who sits on the Taber Parade committee with the Taber and District Chamber of Commerce. “We will stick with what we are doing and continue to have the parade the same weekend (like last year). Coadale’s is in the morning and ours is in the afternoon so families can catch both if they want to. Enchant’s is in the morning, too.”

The parade will commence at 2 p.m. on Saturday and will feature the same route as last year, except for in reverse direction.

“The guys that help us stage the parade from the rodeo committee, they prefer starting it on the other end. It gives them a little more flexibility,” said Williams.

The parade will start at Clearview Lodge at 50th Avenue and 48th Street and will proceed south around Confederation Park.

“It’s basically the same route as last year, although a little shorter. You go around the (town) administration building and hang left, then a right at the provincial building and then go to the Cenotaph, whip around then come back,” said Williams, adding he expects around the same number of floats as last year. “I heard we were a little under than last year, but we will be fine. People seem to sign up at the last minute.”