Organizers have announced the return of the Doo Dah Parade, that wacky satire of a parade known as the “twisted sister of the Tournament of Roses” pageant.
The parade, dormant since 2019 in its in-person form, is set to return Nov. 19 at its original route, which loops along Colorado Boulevard, between Altadena Drive and San Gabriel Boulevard, in East Pasadena.
The longtime offbeat event, which takes delight in making fun of other parades, was for decades traditionally held the weekend before Thanksgiving. But in 2020, the pandemic shut it down — much like Doo Dah’s higher-profile neighbor, the Rose Parade. Crowds simply were not able to gather.
In recent years, the event – fully known as the Occasional Doo Dah Parade — moved its eccentric activities online.
The parade began in 1978, sparking national attention for its eccentric and, often, irreverent satire. And it inspired others throughout the country. Organizers note that it was also named by Readers Digest as “America’s Best Parade,” and was recently featured in the book “50 Places You Must Visit Before You Die.”
In the most recent in-percent parade – in 2019 – the event boasted more than 90 entries, including funky art cars and floats, and as a press release noted: “eccentrics, disruptors, political pundits, artists, lone wolves and steam punks,” who accompanied “a legion of revelers past the mom-n-pop shops along East Pasadena’s shady tree-lined streets.”
The guest list included: LuluBob Space Shuttle, Wisdom Arts Lab. Howdy Krishna, Flying Baby Field Goal, Professor Pigeon’s Flying Library, Radioactive Chickenheads, Dr. Steele’s Army of Toy Soldiers, Unicorns with Palaces, L.A. Derby Dolls, Nintendo Kids, Free Thought Society, Bearded Ladies, Saucer from Bakersfield, Titanic … . The list goes on.
And, in that spirit, with the announcement by the organizers – the nonprofit Light Bringer Project, which also organizes the annual Chalk Festival in Pasadena…
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