Thousands of people dusted off their boots and cowboy hats to take in this year’s edition of the Whoop-Up Days parade Tuesday morning. “It’s great to get out in the community and connect with people that we might not normally see at our concert,” said Cori Latta, president of the Lethbridge Community Band Society. “Our concert season runs from September to June so it’s great to be out in the summertime doing some stuff and getting to make music.” Leading the parade this year was Knud Petersen. The retired potato farmer, who is now a community booster and philanthropist, was selected as the 2026 parade marshal by Excite Lethbridge. “I’ve walked in a parade before but not leading it, of course, so this is a really huge honour and Lethbridge has been so good to me,” Petersen said. Petersen led more than 100 entries featuring music, dancing, horses and even the Grey Cup. Municipal leaders — including Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen — were joined by Premier Danielle Smith, opposition NDP leader Naheed Nenshi and Lethbridge MP Rachael Thomas. “You can tell as you’re going down the parade how many folks are on the side of the road and it was definitely busier than last year,” Hyggen said. Bringing the community together is at the heart of the annual parade, event organizers say. “It’s a unifying experience for everybody, to highlight everything this community has to offer,” said Paul Kingsmith, who is the director of event development at Excite Lethbridge. “When you put it all on display in one event like the parade it’s really impressive to see and really fun to see.” This year’s event was themed ‘Midway Magic.’ Kingsmith says it takes his team more than a year to plan the parade and Whoop-Up Days festivities. “All the hard work is — most of it is behind there’s still come stuff to come — but a lot of it has been done. The field has been set and now we’re just ready for everybody to come out and have an incredible week,” he said. The grounds opened at noon. Whoop-Up Days runs until Aug. 22.
