LexRides

politicalhero · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:22 pm Post subject: Great Turnout at Holiday Parade

Thanks to everyone who came out and enjoyed biking in the Holiday Parade. We had roughly 42-50 people riding bikes, 2 stroller pushers, a few kiddos, and a few reindeer.

I think we really showed the kids a good time and better yet showed people how much fun bikes can be.

Best part for me was having to pass up all the other parade floats when we went to line up... we were pumping the Christmas punk christmas carols... I hope the Baptists enjoyed our beer drinking show.

It is a shame that the non-commercial aspect of the Holiday parade does not transfer to the July 4th parade.

Thanks and lets rock another parade sometime soon!

catamount · townie Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 163 Location: lex

The parade was awesome. It was great passing out lights to all the kids along the route. Bikes are becoming a Lexington parade standard and need to be present in every parade. We should collectively build on the various ideas that came about during the meetings Tim pulled together and aim to grow our presence - the bike armada will come to be something that parade goers expect, enjoy and cheer on.

I couldn’t find a list of scheduled parades online. Anyone know the next parade – Marti Gras, St. Patrick’s Day?
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"The path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked!” - Utah Phillips

brokebike · cutter Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 2434 Location: local

elzie5000 · cutter Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1177

As far as I know, our ride was the only Mardi Gras parade last year.

No reason we can't do it again, maybe invite the mini-moto stunt team. They can help Tim pull the float up Broadway.

catamount · townie Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 163 Location: lex

They actually cancelled the mardi gras parade last year due to the bball tournament. That parade traditionally is one of the more festive ones.

I think the parade had been on Fat Tuesday which if I am not mistaken is Feb 5th this year.
_________________
"The path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked!” - Utah Phillips

politicalhero · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:01 pm Post subject:

I think the year Sun Ra played the parade was on a Saturday because there was a post parade show at the dame and we decorated bikes earlier in the day.

A group of citizens got together last year (reps from cd central, mecca, lattitude, dlc, chamber of commerce, and citizens) to try and make the 4th parade more green. Meaning the organizers would limit the amount of vehicles allowed per entry and they had to be at least 90% decorated (sorry radio stations and UPS). Additionally, there would be city wide float building days and workshops to help groups build cool stuff.

Some of the groups recommendations were used but many were shelved because of lack of time. I think we can approach the "Festival Committee" who plans the 4th parade and really help make it into something better.

I think the next parade is St. Pats. Now that we know we can pull a float and pull off some cool shit at the last minute we should really start building some staged bike stuff to have on hand for future parades.

I think the Mardi Gras parade is great as a people's parade and I really like the feel of it. Let's get folks talking about this with other groups and see what we can get planned.

Just my random thoughts

T

jakubtoborek · Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:11 am Post subject:

Here are some videos from the parade:

http://www.vimeo.com/416973
http://www.vimeo.com/416902
http://www.vimeo.com/412651

brokebike · cutter Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 2434 Location: local

the video of us riding along the parade line-up is great! I had no idea that was such a long ride down midland ave.