Parade lovers in Sudbury can expect to see some exciting things Saturday night when the annual Sudbury Santa Claus Parade takes place in the city's downtown, beginning at about 5:30 p.m.
Dress warmly and maybe bring an umbrella because Environment Canada is forecasting a chance of flurries and maybe even light rain showers, depending on the temperature. Although the temperatures will be mild, youngsters can easily get cold from standing for more than an hour, said the organizers.
The parade will follow a familiar route as it has in past years.
The event begins at the corner of Notre Dame and Ste. Anne Road, the northeast corner of the Elm Place shopping centre. From there the parade moves west and then turns onto Elgin and proceeds south to Elm Street.
The parade then turns onto Elm Street and moves east to Notre Dame, and then north to Ste. Anne Road, back to where the parade began, a distance of about 1.2 kilometres.
Some of the streets along the route will be closed early to allow volunteers to set up safety barricades. The details were outlined at a news conference Thursday morning.
Rick Carr, vice chair of the parade committee, said the event will be a treat for parade watchers as there will be 68 floats in this year's spectacle. Also, at about 5:15 p.m. there will be a fireworks display launched from the area of Van Horne hillm which Carr promised would be a crowd pleaser.
Another unique event will occur right after the fireworks, Carr said. He invited Sudbury Wolves owner Dario Zulich to step up to explain.
Zulich told the news conference he has long had a dream to create the world's biggest goal light; a beacon that would be lit up every time the Wolves hockey team scored a goal. He said that plan was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the vision lived on.
He said his sports organization, Sudbury Wolves Sports and Entertainment, has worked hard to engage, unite and inspire Sudburians.
"You know, wanting to inspire Sudburians, there's no better time of year to inspire them than at Christmas time. And so we're able to marry the two projects to develop the world's biggest goal light and introduce it at the Christmas parade, and it'll be like our own CN tower," said Zulich. The new lighting system at the tower is made up of spotlights and hundreds of LED lights.
Carr reminded city residents to get downtown early and said there would be plenty of free parking all along the parade route. Carr also encouraged residents to spread out along the parade route to find good viewing points which he said are all along Ste. Anne Road, Elgin and Elm streets.
Carr said the committee was also grateful to the many sponsors and volunteers who make the parade possible each year. He said it is those people who help make the parade the biggest and most successful one-day event each year in Sudbury.
Len Gillis is a reporter at Sudbury.com.