Roadboys Travels: Central Avenue Comes Alive

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Central Avenue Comes Alive

The 2018 Edition of Arizona's Fiesta Bowl Parade

Batons, Horses, Balloons, Steel Drums and Cloudless Blue Skies!

Spirit - The Fiesta Bowl Parades Official Mascot

Participants Even Take to the Sky

Twice each December my North Central Phoenix neighborhood becomes sequestered with streets closures to allow for the staging of the Electric Light and Fiesta Bowl Parades.

Horse are staged at the parking lot of one church. Floats are staged on a portion of Central or Bethany Home that is closed for the event. Marching bands practice and set up in the parking lots of another big church.

The events take place with military precision. Bleachers, portable barricades and porta johns appear a few days before hand. And as soon as the parades end, an army of street sweepers fill the street overlapping each other in a "V" formation to immediately start the clean up process.

The participants change each year and seem each reflecting the spirit of the community. One year there was a phalanx of marching businessmen all wearing he same suit and matching briefcases. Other years we have had astronauts, sports heros, buffalo soldiers and Navajo code talkers. Convertibles carry Mayors, Governors and Miss Arizona's all waving to the crowds. The crowds cheer for the teacher's of the year and jump to catch the trinkets thrown.

Marching bands from all over the nation come to serenade Phoenicians and enjoy some of Arizona's December sunshine.

This year's Grand Marshall was Cindy McCain. There were more balloons than ever and there were lots of stagecoaches. Missing this year were the Wild Women of the West, the Caribbean Dancers, the beloved Shriner's and Ex-Sheriff Joe glaring at us from atop some giant piece of military hardware.