Our community’s biggest annual celebration is next week, and the anticipation is building.
The Warren Fourth of July parade, now in its 74th iteration, (nonconsecutive thanks to COVID) promises to bring us a Village-wide celebration including the parade, a street party and dance, a family-friendly field party, a dog parade at Sugarbush, more music and activities at Sugarbush including free chairlift rides. The day culminates with fireworks at Sugarbush.
We look forward with great anticipation to the parade and how participants and float builders will interpret this year’s theme, The Sound of Freedom. Surely there will be political commentary and surely there will be bawdy humor. One cannot help but wonder what the Prickly Mountain folks will bring us this year. And speaking of bawdy, who knows what Dr. Butsch and his band of merrymakers escorting the ancient ambulance Sicky through Warren Village will conjure up.
How will Sugarbush float-builders interpret the theme? And those at Mad River Glen? And what about Tim Seniff? Will he be there with his traditional one-man float challenging preconceived notions and political assumptions? Long live free speech!
Will The Valley Players have a float for Willy Wonka, opening this weekend? Neck of the Woods? Who knows what we’ll get this year. The unknown and unexpected is part of the beauty of the parade.
Our Fourth of July parade is compelling, so much so, that there are generally up to 10,000 (or more) people there in person while hundreds are watching in real time on Mad River Valley Public Television and still hundreds more watch it after the fact on the channel’s website or youTube channel. Like MRVTV’s Waitsfield Covered Bridge webcam, the station’s Fourth of July parade programming is its most popular annual production. All hail public access television!
However, you plan to celebrate the nation’s birthday next week, be kind, be tolerant, respect everyone’s viewpoints even if they don’t align with your own. Don’t bring your dogs to the parade, clean up after yourself (and others if necessary) and if you run into any of the organizers, the judges, the volunteers and Rotarians who make this possible, thank them.
