The public reaction was swift and largely negative following the announcement that the local Christmas Parade was cancelled for 2021, but organizers said the decision was made because the community showed such little interest in participating in the altered format this year. Only 12 entries were submitted, and only about eight of those were actual floats.
“When we looked at the facts, we had really no community interest in participating as a float or anything like that in the parade,” Heather Blackburn, a member of the parade committee, said Wednesday afternoon. “It may be because of the static display.”
The Owensboro-Daviess County Christmas Parade is put on by a group of volunteers and is not a City event. The Parade Association announced on Oct. 8 that the event was returning this year, though with a major change — the floats were going to be static displays and spectators would be the ones moving along the parade route.
By Nov. 3, the committee had only received 12 entries, including at least a couple of first response vehicles and one high school band.
“We reached out to all the participants in the past parades,” Blackburn said. “We always send them reminder emails to let them know that we’re accepting applications. We just didn’t have anybody who I guess wanted to really participate in the static display.”
She added, “Believe me we have very heavy hearts about (canceling). We were hoping that this would be a really fun event where people could come downtown and see the lights and the music and get in the Christmas spirit, but with only 12 entries we just couldn’t do it this year.”
Relying on entry fees to fund the event, Blackburn said the committee couldn’t afford the costs associated with putting the parade on.
Blackburn said the parade generally features 100 or more entries. The committee thought they might still be able to hold the event this year if they could get at least 30 entries.
Even if a donor had stepped in, Blackburn said there’s a chance the parade would have been cancelled due to such few entries.
“I don’t know even with the financial boost to cover those costs what the reaction would have been if there were only 12 entries and not all of them floats,” she said. “There isn’t a lot you can do with only 12. … People would have come downtown and been very disappointed. We didn’t want that either.”
Blackburn said the plan is to go back to the traditional format next year.
“Hopefully that will generate interest again and get the entries up,” she said. “Entry fees are how this can be a free event for the community to attend. If we don’t have the entries, we don’t have a way to do it.”
