The day of the Caledonian Main Street Parade begins early for the parade crew. Parade Organizer Colleen Bagdon and her daughters are set up in front of the high school no later than about 7:15 a.m., ready to check in the 40-or-so individuals, clans, groups, royal courts, and local businesses that register to participate in the preceding months. It takes time to get everything in order by the 9:00 a.m. start time.
This year the parade saw a number of "firsts." As usual, each entry was assigned a parade order number and directed where to wait in the staging area, but the initial "first" of the year was receiving a participation gift of a special ribbon commemorating the 125th year since the very first Caledonian Parade in 1899. The second "first" was lining up on the newly paved and expanded high school parking lot, a great improvement over the dust and gravel of the small parking area they had experienced in years past.
The third "first" of the 2024 parade was first-time announcer Justin Durfee, who by all accounts did a stellar job of sharing interesting facts and details about each entry.
The remaining "firsts" are the entries that won First Place in their parade categories, listed in the file below.
(Photo: The Clan McLeay Pipe Band participated in Caledonian Parades of the early 1900s.)
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