The 36th annual Island Farms Santa’s Light Parade comes to downtown Victoria on Saturday, exactly one month before Christmas.
With 75 entries, including up to 20 floats, it’s a fitting way to herald the holiday season, said Kelly Kurta of the Greater Victoria Festival Society.
“I think we’re the largest lighted parade in Canada.” Along with that, she said Victoria’s event is the first Christmas parade on Vancouver Island this year.
Kurta said there are new entries lining up for the parade, which went from a daytime event to a lighted affair in 1998.
“I’m so excited because they’re community people,” she said. “Capital Iron is putting in an entry and also the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority.
“It sounds like both of those are going to be absolutely stunning. They’re big floats.”
A perennial feature of the parade is the Galey Farms entry, which this year is being put together in partnership with Stages Dance Company.
“My theme this year is Polar Express,” said Rob Galey, referring to a popular Christmas movie.
There will be two Polar Express floats with illuminated Stages dancers performing in between, he said. At the front of the first float will be a Rudolph figurine equipped to bound over five metres in the air.
All told, the Galey Farms and Stages entry will be about 60 metres long.
“We’re one big team this year,” Galey said.
He has become something of a float aficionado over the years, with his first one for the 1999 Island Farms Victoria Day Parade. He is helping with three other floats for Saturday, and in the past, has lent a hand with 10 or more for a single parade.
Former parade chairman Ron Butlin, who died in 2014, was the one who convinced him to branch out to the night parade, Galey said.
“It is a lot of work. And we’re closed for the year, so we’re definitely not advertising. We just do it as part of the community.”
Essential to the operation is Ron Basi, who lends Galey the huge trailer needed for his creations.
The parade starts at Government and Belleville streets at 5 p.m. — an hour earlier than past years — and travels along Government to Herald Street.
Marshalling of the entries will begin about 3 p.m.
Parade watchers can continue with seasonal festivities after the parade in Centennial Square, which is being transformed into Christmas Square. Things will be going on from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., with Santa himself scheduled to turn on the lights in the square at 6:58 p.m. — a time that Kurta said was chosen because it will stick in people’s minds.
Santa will be handing out free milk and cookies, and there will be food trucks and other offerings. Kurta said there will also be plenty of entertainment.
A donation box for food for the Mustard Seed Street Church will be in the square, and donations will also be collected during the parade.
