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Your Hometown Parade
Volunteers Always Welcome
Here is the schedule of Parade Committee meetings for the 2013 Pittsfield 4th of July Parade.
Volunteers are always welcome. Please join us at Morningside School in Pittsfield at 7pm on Wednesday:
May 29
June 5, 12, 19, 26
Vehicle Safety and Float Building Seminar Dates - June 1 – Saturday – 10am - St. Mark’s Church rear hall
- June 19 – Wednesday – Morningside School on Burbank Street
Mandatory meetings to provide information and explain certification process for all parade units with vehicles carrying people.
All vehicles need to qualify through Parade Committee and Pittsfield Fire Department prior to the parade.
Inspections will take place on parade day for final approval.
No exceptions.
Please remember to join us on Thursday, July 4, 2013 at 10 am for the parade. The parade begins at the intersections of South and West and East Housatonic and proceeds north in the south bound lane up South Stree onto North Street onto Wahconah Street and ends at Wahconah Park
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The 2013 Theme is America the Beautiful - The Land That I Love
The Pittsfield Parade Committee announced that 16 unique parade themes were submitted by the public for consideration this year.
The Parade Committee recognized that most of them had a patriotic feel and decided to merge two ideas together to create the perfect theme for the 4th of July Parade.
America the Beautiful - The Land That I Love will allow endless opportunities to show support to our Veterans.
The theme will also allow participants to recognize important Americans, historic parks, monuments and everything that has made this land a great Country.
Local artist, Marge Bride, painted this year's parade poster.
Marge said, "The original inspriation came from the Parade Committee... I was having a tough time... thinking I needed to paint a "concept" so I screamed Uncle and asked the committee for some ideas.
I thought, hey the theme is America the Beautiful - Land that I Love...why not folk art flag in the middle and iconic images along the outside in the approximate places that would appear on the map.
And for the heartland, the farm right on the flag.
Every single image was painted in watercolor by me...all are about 8x10 or larger, because I wanted to be sure I had the details. Now I have a bunch of small paintings, including one of the flag. Once done, they were all scanned in and then assembled in Photoshop and... voila... the poster was born!
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One of the 10 Best Parade Venues in the Country!
This article appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Monday June 30, 2008.
As the Pittsfield Fourth of July Parade gets ready to step off on Friday, it got a high-profile boost in the pages of USA Today, which listed it among the 10 best parade venues in the country.
"We were thrilled," said Peter M. Marchetti, treasurer and coordinator of this year's parade. "It made us feel great."
In its Friday edition, USA Today asked Steve Schmader, president and CEO of the International Festival and Events Association, to list his favorite 10 parades.
Pittsfield was joined by Washington, D.C., Racine, Wis., Philadelphia, Gatlinburg, Tenn., Balboa Island, Calif., Bristol, R.I., Greeley, Colo., Belton, Texas, and St. Louis.
"Once billed as 'Your Hometown Parade,' " the paper said, "the Pittsfield Fourth of July Parade dates back to 1824, when the procession consisted of Revolutionary War veterans and politicians riding in horse-drawn carriages.
Today's modern parade has floats, balloons and marching bands, but still retains the small-town, patriotic flavor of its roots."
USA Today, with a circulation of more than 2.2 million, is the nation's most-read newspaper. The theme of this year's parade is "A World of Music."
There will be 19 marching musical acts, and all 23 floats will play either live or taped music. The six giant helium balloons will likewise have a musical theme, right down to Laa-Laa, the Teletubby.
The parade begins at 10 a.m. Friday and will follow its traditional route, beginning on South Street at the Housatonic Street intersection, proceeding around Park Square, up North Street and ending at Wahconah Park on Wahconah Street.
Here is the link to the orginial story in USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/10great/2008-06-26-fourth-of-july-parades_N.htm
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