It was an astounding Saturday afternoon in La Conner on several levels.

That's thanks to the annual downtown Skagit Valley Tulip Festival Parade presented by Astound Broadband.

A large crowd descended on First Street – cars were parked as far away as S. Fourth and Caledonia – to take in the now not-so-impromptu serpentine, which has evolved over four decades into a well-organized, half-hour, must-see event.

The 2024 edition featured emergency vehicles entered by La Conner Hook & Ladder, Skagit County Fire District 13, McLean Road Fire Department, Skagit County Sheriff's Office and Skagit Bay Search & Rescue, plus assorted vintage cars and trucks. The zany antics of the Nile Temple Shriners were as popular as ever. The La Conner and Burlington-Edison High School pep bands joined forces. The 2024 La Conner Daffodil Court got showered with attention. The Skagit Latin Horses Association showed their exquisite equine skills. A fleet of John Deere farm equipment and mowers rolled down the streets, along with local tricyclists David Alvord and Brad Bradford.

And that's not all.

Making a special parade appearance was Miss Washington Vanessa Munson.

"It was like having royalty here," said parade announcer Rob Ashby, vice president of the Tulip Festival board of directors. "She took time beforehand to meet and greet people up and down the street."

Ashby's official role defined how the parade has grown since its inception here in the 1980s. It was then a truly impromptu affair, the brainchild of late La Conner Kiwanian Luke Long, who felt the fledgling Skagit Valley Tulip Festival deserved a parade.

The trouble was that year's festival was about to get under way and Long doubted he had the time to secure permits for a First Street parade. So, he called up his friends from the Nile Temple in Mountlake Terrace and around the valley.

The inaugural Tulip Festival parade thus commenced on a wink-wink basis.

Long often said, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, that it was fortunate he was on good terms with then-La Conner Police Chief Larry Yonnally. He joked that otherwise the parade might've ended in the hoosgow.

No such fear of that happening these days. Quite the opposite, actually. Law enforcement participated on Saturday and by all accounts it would be a crime for no tulip parade to take place here.

Cheers and ovations filled the air throughout. The loudest applause appeared saved for the Skagit Latin Horses group, founded six years ago, and comprised of elaborately costumed riders taking the reins of beautiful mounts.

Former Mayor Ramon Hayes, who vacated Town Hall at the end of last year after completing his fourth term in office, rode at the front of the parade as grand marshal. His wife, Heidi, shared the ride and held aloft an umbrella in case the light afternoon mist morphed into actual rain. Fortunately, it didn't.

Due to popular demand, several parade entries circled back to First Street a second time. Among them was Hook & Ladder Chief Aaron Reinstra behind the wheel of the gleaming white 1941 fire engine, always a parade favorite.

Reinstra, though, was subject to some good-natured ribbing from his uncle, Rick Rowland, who viewed the parade from First and Morris.

"Hey," said Rowland, alluding to Reinstra, "we've already seen this guy."

Ken Stern

SEND IN THE CLOWNS - The Nile Shrine clowns have been an integral and entertaining part of the Tulip Festival Parade since it began some 40 years ago.

Still, no one was complaining. Folks can't get enough of La Conner's tulip parade, one that might never have happened had it not been for the long ago civic-minded mischief of Luke Long.