Freedom Festival parade marks return

Flashing police lights, honking semi truck horns and booming radio music greeted hundreds of people gathered in downtown Cedar Rapids on Saturday for the return of the Freedom Festival parade.

Umbrellas were perched above many in the crowd, others wore raincoats and ponchos as light rain misted over the parade. The rain picked up occasionally, but several spectators said it didn’t ruin the experience.

Dozens of floats snaked through downtown, starting at Third Avenue and Sixth Street SE, then heading over to Second Avenue, turning around at First Street to go back up Third Avenue SE.

Entries in the parade included floats honoring the military and veterans and from local TV news and radio stations, mayoral candidates, police, emergency services and local businesses.

Lisa Sherard, 45, was watching the parade as her children, Elliana, Kaleb and Genevieve, scattered for candy tossed from passing vehicles.

She said the rain didn’t deter her kids, who also had to sit through rain at Balloon Glow at Hawkeye Downs on Tuesday.

“We've already done rain, so we’re good,” she said. “Didn’t really affect us a whole lot.”

Eliana, 11, said her favorite part of the parade had been the different cars driving by, including a series of older classic cars honoring this year’s Tribute to Heroes.

Through the uncertainty of the pandemic, the parade was planned in a few forms, and only recently was decided to be a traditional parade.

Karol Shepherd, executive director of Freedom Festival, said the parade was originally conceived as a “drive-through” format, in which participants would drive through the streets and see stationary floats and entries.

As logistics became difficult, it changed to a walk-through format, in which participants could walk by stationary floats. Less than three weeks ago, however, Freedom Festival got the green light from the city to hold a traditional parade.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Shepherd said before the parade. “We’ve got committee members and board members just frantic trying to make that change. As you can imagine, lots of moving pieces when it comes to putting together a parade.”

The parade was smaller this year than in years past, with about 55 to 60 entries, Shepherd said. Usually the parade draws around 100.

After the parade was called of because of COVID-19 last year, people said it was nice to be able to gather in public again as a community. Spectators said they were thankful the format was flipped to a traditional parade rather than a walk-through.

“It’s needed, it’s very needed,” said Montez Davis, 36, one of the spectators. “It builds the community.”

Festival events will run through July 4. More details can be found at freedomfestival.com.

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