INNISFAIL – The town’s annual rodeo weekend is arriving Friday with float registrations booming for Saturday’s Innisfail Rotary Pro Rodeo Parade.
“The number of registrations is up substantially from last year. Right now we have 51 floats registered for the parade. Last year we had 32 in total,” said Ken Kowalchuk, the Town of Innisfail’s communications coordinator. “It seems that the community has responded well to this year, and we're going to see a bigger parade once again.”
The annual Innisfail Rotary Pro Rodeo Parade on June 17 is held each year to coincide with the 62nd annual Daines Ranch Pro Rodeo, which officially begins at 5 p.m. on Friday, June 16 at the Daines Ranch, six kilometres north of town off the C& E Trail.
The pro rodeo at the Daines Ranch will start at 7 p.m. on Friday night and be featured again at 7 p.m. on Saturday. It will wrap up Sunday afternoon starting at 2:30 p.m.
As for the parade, it will start at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning. However, before it starts the waiting public will have the opportunity to listen to local musician Cole Martin who will be performing at Banker’s Corner (50th Street and 50th Avenue) from 9:30 a.m. until the parade’s start.
Halia’s Helium will also be in attendance starting at 9:30 a.m. and will be providing glitter tattoos and face painting.
The parade will begin at the intersection of 49th Street and 51st Avenue.
It will move north to 50th Street where it will head east and then south on 50th Avenue.
The parade will then turn west on 40th Street and move north on 52nd Avenue. It will end at the intersection of 52nd Avenue and 42nd Street.
Dani Rain, the parade coordinator for the Rotary Club of Innisfail, said Ron King, the town’s 2022 Citizen of the Year winner, will be this year’s parade marshal.
“We also decided that we're going to invite the other community award winners to march behind the citizen of the year. We are going to try to make that a new tradition,” said Rain, adding Mackenzie Skeels, the reigning Miss Rodeo Canada 2023, is also expected to attend.
“We are in charge of judging the parade and directing the flow of the parade,” she added. “I will have about 10 Rotary members at the parade and they will go around and judge the parade and I will stand in the middle and direct the flow.”
With 51 floats already registered, which Rain said was “amazing," they will be judged before the parade from 9:30 to 10 a.m.
The floats will be judged for five different classes, including decorated cars, bands, commercial and non-commercial, non-profit clubs and churches, and horses.
In the meantime, the town is advising the public that barricades and signs are being placed at intersections, side streets and alley access points along the parade route.
The signs will indicate street closures from 8:30 a.m. until the end of the parade at about 12:30 p.m.
The town is also advising residents to avoid parking along the parade route on Saturday morning.
