I’ve been to a lot of Czech Festivals over the past 40+ years, but 2021’s may have been the most memorable yet.
In 2020, Yukon’s Czech Festival and Parade was cancelled due to COVID. This was the first year Yukon did not have a Czech Day since the tradition began in 1966.
For this year’s parade, the role of planning and coordinating the festival fell on my friend, Jaime Olvera. I’ve known Jaime since he was on my soccer team in grade school, and the two of us graduated together in 1991. Jaime has organized portions of the parade before, but this year he ended up organizing the entire thing. From organizing the parade to wrangling vendors, Jaime had his hand in every part of this year’s celebration. He and his family even helped bake the tens of thousands of kolaches that are sold on Czech Day.
And so when Jaime called and asked if Susan and I would do him a favor, I said sure. It turned out what he needed was two people to help with judging the parade’s floats. I tend to group parade judges with the guys who determine whether or not Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow on Groundhog Day and people who wear referee shits at competitive food eating events. It’s an interesting gig with an interesting story, but nobody quits their day job for it.
Susan and I arrived at the stage an hour before the parade was scheduled to begin. The parade route, which runs down Yukon’s Main Street (also known as Route 66), is about a mile long and our seats were on a raised stage around the halfway point. The parade was emceed by two local news anchors (Wendy Suarez and Dan Snyder) who did a fantastic job of working with the material that was provided and padding some of the lighter submissions.
Although there is no additional fee, floats must manually check a box if they wish to be judged. Out of the hundred or so entrants in the parade, I think only twenty entered. There were three separate categories: commercial, civic, and (I think) youth. We weren’t given any specific instructions or guidelines on how to judge, rank, or score the floats, only that each of us were required to submit our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices in each category. Some of the things I looked for were how much of the float was handmade vs purchased, the amount of work that went into the float, how the floats tied into the parade’s theme, and the spirit of the contestants. I can’t say exactly how Susan and Gloria (the third judge) determined their scores, but I will say that all three of us took our jobs seriously. As someone who has been on the other side of that equation (we have entered our local Fourth of July Parade — and won — several years in a row), we know what it’s like to put a lot of work into a project, and as a judge we all wanted to give the participants the respect they deserved.
Susan and I happened to be in the perfect spot to both see and be seen. During the parade, several of our local friends stopped by the stage to greet us. And, those seats were great for watching our daughter march by in the high school’s marching band. A few minutes later we got to wave to my dad, my sister, and my nephews, all of which were a part of the school’s rugby float. (Don’t worry — neither of those entrants were part of the competition!)
The parade lasts about an hour and a half, and when it was over we turned our ballots in to Jaime. I believe Gloria, Susan, and I all picked different floats in different orders, so some mathematics were required to tally up who won the competition. It may sound cliché, but after not having a Czech Day in 2020, we really felt like everyone who participated in the 2021 Czech Festival and Parade were winners. Kolaches for all!
