About 120 entries will make their way two miles down Littleton Boulevard and Main Street for Western Welcome Week’s 88th Grand Parade.
The parade, on Aug. 20, is the only event that has been part of Western Welcome Week every year, Executive Director Cindy Hathaway said.
“You’ve got people who are diehards,” Hathaway said. “They will be at the parade no matter what.”
Parade-goers line the street 10 to 20 people deep to see the entries, she said.
The parade begins at the intersection of Gallup Street and Littleton Boulevard at 10 a.m., kicking off with a flyover of antique airplanes.
“That alerts people downtown that the parade is starting,” Hathaway said.
The entries will wind down to the judging stand at the west end of Main Street before proceeding south along Rapp Street to Arapahoe Community College.
“We try to stay within two hours,” Hathaway said.
Among the parade’s larger entries are 13 high school marching bands, two pipe bands and the Westernaires horse drill team, which has 60 horses and riders and is a perennial favorite.
“People love seeing the horses,” Hathaway said.
Other favorites are the Three Margaritas mariachi band and the O’Toole’s Garden Center float.
Hathaway also singled out the Association of Living History, with its military re-enactments, and the Front Range Antique Power Association, with antique tractors, as popular longtime participants. And not to be forgotten is Kroenke Sports, which brings the mascots for the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and Colorado Mammoth who will pose for pictures after the parade.
Said Hathaway: “The kids love them.”