2007 Parade Activities
Art Car Cruise
Friday May 18, 9:00am to 3:00pm
The Art Car Cruise is a recently added feature to the Parade Schedule. In this event national and locally recognized Art Cars will travel from school to school showing off their creations. Then explaining to kids and a few head scratching teachers why on earth would you take a perfectly good boat and put it on a car chassis. See, education can be fun!
Pre Parade Painting Party
Friday May 18, 6:30-9pm
Top level of the New Hampshire Street parking garage, Bring your car, bikes, skateboards or whatever as long as it has wheels and paint it or artify it in some way for the parade; we'll supply the paint, music, snacks and etc. Bands, popcorn and just good old time hangin’ out on a spring night… unless it’s raining of course, then you’ll have to use your own garage to paint your stuff on your own.
Pre-Parade Paint Party Entertainment includes opening band Brass n’ Grass, followed by Blue Orleans with food provided by Chipotle Mexican Grill. We're also sponsored by Lawrence Arts Center, Cottin’s Hardware, and Mass Street Music.
Donations are welcome.
Parade Line-up & Check-in: Saturday May 19th, 10:30am
Line up in front of the Lawrence Arts Center , 940 New Hampshire Street . Park your car facing south in the center lane, with all the other cars and wheeled art, in single file. A Parade committee member will be there to direct you. Be sure to check-in, and make sure we have an entry form with your name and our entry title on it at the table in front of the Arts Center.
The Art Tougeau Parade!: Saturday May 19th, 12pm noon
If everything goes as planned, we try to start the parade as close to 12pm as is humanly possible. We roll south ( go slow enough for the crowd to drink in every detail of your wheeled work of art) down New Hampshire Street to 11th Street, take a slow right onto Massachusetts Street and continue 4 blocks to 7th Street. We turn right onto 7th St. , & head back towards the East 100 Block of 10th Street Southside of the Replay Lounge for the awards ceremony, short & sweet. HEY, SAFETY FIRST! Just be sure to keep a respectful distance behind the entry in front of you…we go slow, especially if you are behind kids on bikes, wheelchairs, skateboards, the lawn-mower brigade, etc,…. so please be careful. If you want to give out candy or treats to the crowd, we prefer that you have someone walk along beside the car handing it out. That way we don’t have kids (or moms, dads, dogs, grandmas, etc.) running out in front of the parade trying to get the candy.
Post Parade Block Party and Awards Ceremony
Saturday May 19, 1-5 pm
After the parade we are turning the East 100 block of Tenth Street in to a BLOCK PARTY featuring the music of the irrepressible husband and wife duo, Truckstop Honeymoon: . That’s right Music, Cars, Bikes, UFO’S, Food, Beverages, and People of all ages.
"Johnny and June" by Truckstop Honeymoon
After we’ve paraded our wheeled art, park your ride & meet us Southside of the Replay Lounge 946 Mass. See the Awards Ceremony, don’t take the awards too seriously – ‘cause we don’t. There really isn’t a “ceremony” – just a guy in a parade t-shirt talking into a mic. We do have a trio of great judges including Channel 9 news reporter Bev Chapman, and they do give out awards (usually made by the Free State High School art class and Precious Child Day Care) to folks who did an especially good job – which in our case doesn’t always mean the fanciest ride - folks who’ve shown especially noticeable creativity and inventiveness. We leave it up to the judges to make up the categories & figure out who deserves an award. They pretty much make it up as they go – in a heartfelt kind of way - which is kind of the point. Absolutely everyone in the parade, from the 5-year-old on a trike to the police who help mark off the streets, gets an Official Art Tougeau Parade Ribbon.
After the Ceremony meet the artist and get a closer look at their creations. Then around 3:00 step inside the Replay Lounge and hear play'n, sing'n and rit’n as solid as a Mack Truck with an attitude ...”Truckstop Honeymoon"
Download 2007 Schedule(PDF)