BEND, OR -- The Bend Christmas Parade makes its way through downtown Saturday.
This year’s theme is a High Desert Christmas. “We’re looking for everybody to kind of just celebrate in the spirit of the high desert where we live and just kind of embracing that fabulous topography and everything that we have and incorporating that into their theme of their floats in some way, shape, or form,” said the Parade Committee’s Dina Barker who is grateful for the scores of volunteers, along with the Oregon National Guard Youth Challenge Program, who make the parade possible.
Parade Chairman Michael Sipe expects a record number of entrants. “This is the 30th anniversary of the volunteer committee doing it. So, this is going to be the biggest one ever. We have over a hundred entrants. Last year was the biggest turnout of the parade. Thousands of people out on the streets. From all of the people that have been doing it for 30 years they said ‘we’ve never seen any kind of turnout like this’,” said Sipe who is also excited about this year’s special dignitary, a former St. Charles CEO, “Jim Lussier is the Grand Marshall. He’s obviously one of the finest gentleman and biggest community leaders that we have in Central Oregon. So tremendous opportunity for us to say thank you to him for his years and years in community leadership.”
The parade starts at 12 pm beginning on Newport Avenue, travels down Wall Street, then by Drake Park, and finishes on the corner of Galveston and Harmon.
Drivers need to watch for street closures along the route.
