Scottsdale leisure infuses Fiesta Bowl Parade | Arts & Leisure

The Fiesta Bowl Parade will march alongside the streets of downtown Phoenix for the fiftieth time on Saturday, Dec. 17, with a wholesome illustration of Scottsdale within the type of bands and different leisure.

The parade, with over 3,000 performers, will start at 10 a.m. on the intersection of Bethany House Highway and Central Avenue and replicate some thrilling adjustments by the brand new management group planning the occasion. 

“It may be a enjoyable yr as a result of we now have a bunch on the workplace that it is their first yr being concerned,” stated Ben Smith, who’s serving his first yr because the parade chair. “We have had plenty of new, contemporary concepts from the group throughout the board and it will be seen from the expertise facet.” 

Smith, who has labored on the parade committee for 18 years, equates the parade to a “stay model of Tik-Tok.” 

“As somebody that is been concerned in it for thus lengthy, I’ve contemplated what’s it that retains a parade like this related and it comes right down to not (being) the identical yearly,” stated Smith.

“We do have completely different balloons; we’ll be highlighting some stuff that’s been in storage for the previous 20 years and it is all the time going to be a enjoyable new and thrilling expertise the place these children which are used to getting prompt gratification observing their telephones are going to get that with out observing that display screen.” 

Because the Fiesta Bowl Parade touts itself as the most important balloon parade within the west, Smith says this yr might see some fan-favorite balloons from years previous piercing the sky as marchers strut down the streets of downtown Phoenix. 

Smith teased that the parade’s lead sponsor, VRBO, will get away a shock balloon that has been in storage for practically twenty years and Donate Life Beneath might get away a gargantuan cactus that can scrape the sky. 

Including to the festivities, marching bands from across the state –together with Desert Canyon Center Faculty and Saguaro and Coronado Excessive Faculty – reminded Smith, a Coronado Excessive alumnus, of his favourite occasion as a baby.

“Rising up as a child earlier than I acquired into highschool, my buddies and I’d go watch the parade and it impressed a love for music amongst me and quite a lot of my buddies, who ended up taking part in in a few of these bands that marched within the parade,” Smith stated. 

Although Smith stated that he hopes the parade will spark the identical affinity for music because it did for him, he additionally hopes that children discover pleasure within the solid of characters representing the Marvel and DC comedian pantheons in addition to the Star Wars franchise.

“For the children, I hope that what they get out of that’s it is only a ardour for the neighborhood to get excited concerning the alternative they get to see the characters that they see on TV and in motion pictures,” Smith stated. 

The parade may even characteristic longtime play-by-play commentator for the Phoenix Suns Al McCoy, the grand marshal; Scottsdale-based legal professionals Lerner & Rowe, who’re the presenting sponsors; and an abundance of performers driving in vehicles, on floats and on horseback previous an anticipated viewers of over 200,000 plus patrons.

“I have been concerned in a parade for 18 years and though I have never seen the parade for that lengthy,” Smith stated, “it is actually thrilling for me to be part of that and to have the ability to give that to the neighborhood.”

If You Go:

Fiesta Bowl Parade

When: 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 17

The place: Central Phoenix, N. Central Avenue and Montebello Avenue, Phoenix.

Value: Free.

Data: fiestabowl.org