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The Historic Park City Alliance Weighs The Value Of The Electric Parade

historicparkcityutah.com

The Historic Park City Alliance - the organizers of the annual Park City Electric Parade - are weighing the pros and cons of continuing the home-grown event. Melissa Allison has more:

The parade takes place on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving and is considered a favorite among locals. It got its start when the HPCA was looking for ways to engage the community more during the holidays.

Though the parade is enjoyed by many, the low number of parade entries had Alliance Marketing Consultant Meisha Ross asking the board at Tuesday’s meeting to weigh the worth of the event that started about eight years ago.

“We oftentimes have seen that it’s not the biggest and brightest and so sometimes when that happens, those people probably don’t leave with the best taste in their mouths," Ross said. "So, last year we were very fortunate, we had a great turnout from both floats, who did an amazing job, as well as the number of floats so we were very pleased. You know the year prior it was, I think it was ridiculously cold, it was snowing so it all depends on whether we had, I think 10 people signed up the year before which 10, believe it or not is actually good, 10 to 15 is kind of where we hover. And so, it’s a big difference though, between 13 and five.”

She said, while she doesn’t personally have any ideas of what they could replace the event with, they do need to talk about it.
Council Member Becca Gerber was at the meeting and told the board part of the problem was not having a place, out of the weather, to decorate your float.

“I don’t know if maybe there’s a way, I think maybe if you had even, earlier in the day, 'Meet us in the China Bridge garage' or something and we’ll help you put it together," Gerber said. "Or if there’s, you know, some people.”

Park City Economic Develop Manager Jonathan Weidenhamer said he could look into getting the city to allow them to use the Public Works bus barn for the day.

Alliance President John Kenworthy suggested they have the entrants meet the night before to decorate their floats together to build on the sense of community and festivities.

The board then talked about how they could get more people to sign up for the parade.

Executive Director and Liaison Michael Barille asked how effective the event was in getting people into their stores on Main St.

One of the board members said the event is not about getting people into the stores, its about bringing the community together.

To make the idea of having an entry in the parade, the board discussed asking the merchants to donate gift certificates.

Ross said they’re hoping for more than just gift certificates from the merchants.

“We always are looking for additional participation for everything that we do and so, I think that the window display contest is the same," Ross said. "We generally have about 12 to 15 participants in that but yeah, if we could have the entire street decorated for the holidays then, then that’s amazing.”

Overall, the board agreed the parade is something they’d like to continue and Kenworthy said he’d like to see the parade grow to about 30 floats.

The Alliance will meet again September 18 at 8:30 a.m. at the Wasatch Brew Pub on Main St.

I’m Melissa Allison, KPCW News.
 

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