2000 Portland Rose Festival Starlight Parade

Copyright 2000 St. Wolfgang's Bavarian Guild

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On June 3rd, almost 60 players representing St. Wolfgang's Bavarian Guild, The Seattle Knights, Sherwood Robin Hood Days, and Dayes of Olde, Gates of Thyme, Gig Harbor Renaissance Faires rode on a float in the Portland General Electric/SOLV Starlight Parade Presented by Southwest Airlines (the politically correct name for Portland Oregon's Starlight Parade). This is the second largest illuminated parade in the known world.

The float once again was designed by Steven Overton, Guildmaster of St. Wolfgang's, who won an award for the best non-commercial float in the 1996 Starlight Parade with a float for OMSI (The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). This year's float was built by members of St Wolfgang's and the other groups listed above, at several work parties prior to the parade. Like last year, it was assembled on a 66 foot long flatbed truck donated by Ralph and Joyce Hovis of Coast Crane and Equipment Company, and carefully driven to the parade staging area, and in the parade, by their intrepid driver Scott.

We were told by the parade organizers that our float last year would have taken a major award if it only had had more lights on it to illuminate the people riding on it. So, this year we tested our poor generators to their maximum capacity, placing more lights on the people riding on the float and also on the signs representing each faire and group represented. This lead to two heart-stopping moments when all the power from one of the generators failed, but St. Wolfgang's intrepid Assistant Guildmaster Dan DeMoy quickly determined that the generator was overheating and removed some of the burlap covering that hid the generator, which solved the problem.

The float was entered in the parade to call attention to the Renaissance Faires in the Pacific Northwest region so it carried the banner of the Pacific Northwest Renaissance Faires.

The float riders assembled at 3:30 at the Cleaning Bar, the DeMoy Family-owned Dry Cleaning establishment near the site of the parade. They got into their costumes there, and stepped onto a brand new bus, driven by guild member David Bryson, the use of which was donated by his employers, Buz and Carolyn of Raz Transportation, Portland's leading tour bus company. Huzzah to David, Buz and Carolyn for making assembly and disbursement of the riders much easier.

The parade kicked off at 8:30 in the evening and wound its way through downtown Portland, Oregon, The parade was broadcast regionally by a Portland TV station. An estimated 350,000 spectators lining the route of the parade cheered us on. We were thrilled to learn that we took a second place award in the Community Non-Sponsored Division and it fostered a greater feeling of togetherness among the members of the groups involved. And besides that, everyone had a ball.

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