SANTA CRUZ — Thousands of spectators from across the county and Bay Area lined Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz Saturday morning for the downtown holiday parade. The annual celebratory concert was organized by the Downtown Santa Cruz Association and featured more than 70 floats, musicians and bands.
“We have a lot more people and community groups in the parade this year,” said Santa Cruz City Councilwoman Sonya Brunner, who also serves on the Downtown Association. “We have more school bands than ever before, and music is so important in our schools. There’s the SPCA with rescue dogs and the library training team with synchronized library carts. We have several dance bands, different artists, businesses downtown and the Santa Cruz Fire Department. It’s a community event and I love that.”
This year’s show sponsors include Santa Cruz Community Credit Union, Google Cloud, Bresney Associates, Pedro Gonzalez with Farmers Insurance, Penny’s Ice Creamery, Soak Shop & Shoe Company, Far West Fungie and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
At the staging area, before the parade began, Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Kelly also expressed his amazement at the amazing number of community groups participating in the parade, and how amazed he was as he rode one of the Santa Cruz Fire Department’s Pacific Fire Department trucks. street.
“I would have run for mayor for no other reason,” Kelly said. “I’m as excited to ride the fire engine as these little ones are on theirs.
San Mateo resident Judy Buck was visiting Santa Cruz for the weekend with her husband and made sure to check out the display on a cloudy but dry Saturday morning before they went for an afternoon hike in Elkhorn Slough.
“I saw in the paper that this was happening and I’m a parade person, and the weather was perfect,” Buck said. “I enjoy the holidays because people take the time to be kind to each other. I heard someone say if you can’t give money or gifts, just give a little of yourself to someone.
David Bush and his son James lined up along Pacific Avenue to check out the array of different groups and take some pictures of the band from Mission Hill Middle School.
“My son marches with the Mission Hill band and James has marched with the Mission Hill band in the past,” David Bush said. “I love seeing all the different community organizations participating like the public library with their push carts.”
Santa Cruz surfer Nat Young was downtown getting into the holiday spirit and watching the holiday parade for the first time with his 2-year-old daughter Rocky, who was excited to see Santa Claus.
“It’s fun when everyone’s celebrating, and it’s a good excuse to get out and about,” Young said. “I don’t come downtown often, so this was a good reason to come here.”
Former Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty was outside the jewelry store of his wife, Dale Williams, admiring the festive scene as floats and performers made their way down the street.
“Seeing tens of thousands of families downtown all having fun is amazing,” Connerty said. “And the variety of groups – parkour, mushrooms, schools – we have it all.”
