Lights parade shines bright
Thousands line Downtown streets for floats, music and marchers
Crowds eight to 10 deep in some places cheered, oohed and aahed for the dozens of light-festooned floats passing by Saturday evening in Downtown Auburn. Not long after the 5:30 p.m. starting time, the Festival of Lights parade created a sparkling sea stretching from Cherry Avenue to Auburn Folsom Road, to the delight of the hundreds of residents and visitors lining the streets. Auburn resident Cathy Von Koche watched the festivities from a spot on Lincoln Way across from the Promenade Building. Von Koche, who has attended several times, said she particularly enjoys the Keystone Cops and Santa. Everyone was bundled against the chilly night air, but it really wasn’t that bad, Von Koche said. “This year is actually warm compared to other years,” she said. “I’ve been here when it was freezing.” It was the first time to see the parade for Cool resident Casey Jower. “It’s wonderful. We love it,” she said. “We want to come back every year. It’s just the family atmosphere. And it’s so big.” Jower, who was holding her 3-month-old son, Levi, also brought along her mother, Deb Dicato from Las Vegas. Dicato said she was enjoying the community atmosphere. “It is so neat,” she said about the parade. “I just love small towns. Being in Las Vegas, you don’t get that small-town feel.” With parking at a premium, Jower said they found a spot at Marie Callender’s restaurant, several blocks away across Interstate 80 . “It was worth the trek,” she said. Next to her, another three-generation family —Colfax resident Staci Kodet with son Parker Kodet, 15 months, and her mother, Karen Miller were taking it all in, too. “It’s just great,” Kodet said. Nearby, friend Sarah Gillmore of Newcastle was also there for the first time. “I want to have a float next year,” she said. “It would be just a group of friends. We grew up in the area and have been friends since were little.” The Festival of Lights Parade attracts thousands of viewers. And anticipation was evident early in the day, with dozens of chairs already lining the route. Firefighters who battled the 49 Fire led the procession, with approximately 200 personnel from area fire departments participating. Among the floats was The Sugar Plump Fairies’ Angels on High” and Auburn Presbyterian Church’s “Unto Us a Child is Born.” The church was last year’s Sweepstakes Award winner. This year’s award winners will appear in Tuesday’s Journal.
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beautiful parade as always. We should have more. This community is AWesome.
Thoroughly enjoyed by my whole family....and we didn't even have to rope off seating or place chairs before noon! That kind of ruins the otherwise fabulous event!! I understand blocking off an area if you own a house for the "ring" side view but by noon when we drove by after the farmer's market all around the click tower people had "staked" their claims. Next, I suppose they'll start selling tickts for admission.
The dog-and-light show always comes through!!
It was incredible seeing so much diversity from such a small community. I saw many groups represented and a few that I didn't know were active in our area like the Tea Party Patriots who got lots of cheers from on lookers.
This was the BEST parade in several years!!!! We were so impressed with the thought going into ALL of the floats this year. The music was great and we love having the parade route back to normal. It was AWESOME having all the firefighters let the parade. It was an amazing nite of magic and community!!
What do Placer Football players have to do with the light parade??????????????????
Eric Chun's percussion band, "The Auburn Drumline" was so awesome, I followed them down the parade route.
Great event, it gets better every ear, but in the future provisions should be made to shuttle people back and forth so the streets arent blocked with cars trying to get to and back....
An incredible amount of work goes into both preparing and the actual event. All this is done by volunteers who year after year are there for this event. Let's all work together in the spirit of Christmas and understand there is a certain structure that needs to be adhered to in order to relieve congestion and keep things moving along. Thanks to Bill and Nancie, Steve and Leslie, the voluteers from Auburn and Gold Country Rotary and the Auburn Chamber of Commerce.
An awesome event for OUR town! What makes this parade so special is that anyone is welcome to join in the fun! How wonderful to see our championship football team, band and choir showing some community pride. Just a great group of young men and women. I think one of the best parts of this is event is that the crowd participates in welcoming each entry with hoots, hollars and MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Jerrad Weaver is #55 NOT 52.
sara11:we forgive you. have you been in a coma?maybe outta town?let's assume you're not a hater or on drugs. the answer is that the team(school ,band,cheer,dance,ect)has been a source of community pride.great character,spirit,success- what more do you want? the band and team probably should have led the parade.come to games sara,feel the energy.have some community pride and school spirit.i hope i've answered your question.