Hundreds of people lined up along the route of the SMILE Services Estevan Parade on Friday. Bright, original and exciting event created the atmosphere for the rodeo weekend making a lot of spectator smile while watching the floats travelling through downtown.
The air was filled with music, laughs, candies and quite a bit of humidity. Fortunately, the weather co-operated and the community could enjoy the show.
Just over 40 floats were entered in the parade this year, which is slightly less than before. However, the general turnout was good.
“We would like to have more entries, but we were satisfied with what we had,” said manager of SMILE Services Art Beselt.
Beselt spent all Friday afternoon out in town getting everything ready for the parade. He said it took quite a bit of work to put the event together.
The floats gathered at Eighth Street just before 4 p.m. to later travel up Fourth Street, down Sixth Street and to end at the Estevan Leisure Centre. Streets were closed for traffic at the time of the parade.
This year the parade was organized around the theme of emergency services.
The Estevan Trinity Lutheran Church won the award for the best entry in the parade. The CUPE group of dressed-up volunteers walking with the truck decorated with balloons won for the best interpretation of the theme. Tyros Tree Services had the best out of town entry; Debby Barker and her ponies had the best horse award, and St. Joseph's Hospital once again won for the best comedy.
SMILE Services Estevan have been putting the event up for 16 years making it a good tradition.
After the parade was over, a good portion of the crowd slowly moved over to the Exhibition Grounds for a great western-style show.
