Fun facts about Bradenton's biggest parade - The DeSoto Grand Parade
The DeSoto Heritage Grand Parade will get going at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Here are a few things you need to know about the parade, and some that you simply might find interesting.
This year's parade will be the biggest DeSoto Heritage Grand Parade ever, with 157 entries. The previous record was set just a couple of years ago: the 2014 parade featured 153 units.
The DeSoto Heritage Grand Parade is the second largest parade in Florida, after Tampa's Gasparilla Parade of Pirates.
Entries this year are coming in from as far away as Wisconsin and North Dakota, There's even a unit from Barcarrota, Spain, the birthplace of Hernando de Soto. That city sends a krewe to Bradenton every year, and Bradenton's DeSoto Crewe travels to Barcarrota for its annual festival.
The parade's first year was 1939. That marked the 500th anniversary of De Soto's local landing. De Soto, incidentally, never made it home to Spain; he died in Louisiana in 1542.
World-renowned high-wire artist Nik Wallenda will be the grand marshal of this year's parade. Last year's parade featured Bradenton's Sam Woolf singer-songwriter and his "American idol" cohort Alex Preston as grand marshals. In previous years, the grand marshal was always a local notable who was unlikely to be well-known outside Manatee County. "We've been trying to step it up in the last couple of years," parade co-chair Tom Murphy said. Wallenda won't be performing any death-defying stunts along the parade route. "We haven't figured out how to string a high wire from a moving float," Murphy said.
Officials estimate that about 150,000 to 200,000 people watch the parade ever year. That's about three or four times the population of Bradenton, and about half the population of Manatee County.
Bead-throwing hasn't always been an integral part of the parade. That was introduced in the '70s or '80s, after members of the Crewe of DeSoto traveled to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. They adopted the Mardi Gras tradition of tossing cheap plastic beads as alternative to throwing coins. Sandy Elton, the historian for the Hernando de Soto Historical Society, said the change happened mostly out of concern about the possibility of people being injured by metal coins thrown from the floats. Members of the Crewe of DeSoto still dole out coins to this day, but they're more careful, and try to hand them out rather than throwing them.
Speaking of beads, each string may be inexpensive, but the cost adds up. The krewe members pay for their own beads. Murphy said each box of beads costs about $50, and each krewe member goes through probably three or four boxes at each parade. Parade officials figure about two million strings of beads are tossed at each year's parade. Some people who collect beads at the parade sell them back to the krewes.
There are lots of krewes but only one Crewe. The "krewe" spelling started with Mardi Gras way back in the olden days. Lots of groups than enter the DeSoto Heritage Grand Parade refer to themselves as krewes, but the Crewe of DeSoto uses a different spelling because they actually represent Hernando de Soto's crewmen.
No one is sure how long the tradition of setting out chairs along the parade route in the days leading up to the parade has been going on. Decades at least. But in all that time, as far as parade officials know, no ne'er-do-well has ever purloined a chair. "We have never heard a report of a stolen chair," Murphy said. It's really remarkable how respectful people in this community are about their chair rights."
Safety is a big concern, and the parade has a pretty good safety record. The last injury worth noting happened about 20 or 25 years ago, when a young boy, maybe 5 or 6 years old, darted out into the parade route, probably trying to fetch some beads. He broke his foot.
The krewe members who walk alongside of the floats instead of riding on them are actually working security detail. They're there as the last line of defense against people running into the parade route.
If you're not planning on watching the parade, you still need to be aware of it. Streets along the parade route will be closed from 5:30-11 p.m. Saturday. So you won't be able to drive on Manatee Avenue between 43rd Street West and First Street West, on Ninth Street West between Sixth Avenue West and Riverside Drive in Palmetto (including the Green Bridge) and on Ninth Avenue West between 30th Street West and 39th Street West.
Details: 6:30 p.m. April 30, starting at Manatee High School, 902 33rd St. Court W., Bradenton. Admission: Free. Information: 941-747-1998, desotohq.com,
Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.
This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Fun facts about Bradenton's biggest parade - The DeSoto Grand Parade ."