‘Community comes together’: Thousands take in annual Whoop-Up Days parade

Thousands of people lined 3rd Avenue and 13th Street in Lethbridge on Tuesday morning for the annual Whoop-Up Days parade.

Thousands of people dusted off their cowboy hats and boots to take in the annual Whoop-Up Days parade Tuesday morning.

“There’s not much better than right now and seeing the community come together; it makes everything worth it,” said Paul Kingsmith, director of event development at the Lethbridge and District Exhibition (LDE).

Leading the way this year was the Morris family, owners of Gas King.

The LDE selected the Morris family to be the honorary parade marshals to recognize their work and support toward Whoop-Up Days.

“We were quite surprised when the exhibition asked us to be parade marshals; we’re very honoured, of course,” said Brent Morris, Gas King president.

“We don’t think of ourselves as hometown heroes, but we’re happy to lead this year’s parade.”

Morris says they began selling Whoop-Up Days tickets at their Gas King locations in 2001.

Following the Morris family were about 120 entries, including music, dancing and floats.

Members of Lethbridge City Council, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi, along with Lethbridge MP Rachael Thomas, took part in this year’s parade.

“There are over 1,600 people that will be going through the parade this year, and when you think of a city of 100,000, that’s a pretty big percentage of the people who live in this city,” said Kingsmith.

Thousands more lined the streets to take in the parade.

“Knowing that everyone is putting that kind of effort in because they see the pride in it, and they see that they are part of the community, it’s really heartwarming to know that people care that much about this city and about this event and about this parade and want to be a part of it and put in the effort to make it really, really good,” said Kingsmith.

Businesses, community organizations and cultural groups took the chance to showcase what they have to offer to the community.

When it comes to judging, Kingsmith says a new Indigenous category has been created to highlight the Blackfoot culture.

“We’ve seen an increase in the number of Indigenous groups taking part in the parade and it is to the point where we wanted to recognize that and introduce that as one of the parade categories this year,” he said.

Following the parade, the grounds opened at noon.

Whoop-Up Days runs until Aug. 24.