(2017 West Seattle Grand Parade photo by Christopher Boffoli – All-City Band)

This Saturday (July 22nd) is the day when West Seattle Grand Parade participants will roll, march, dance, and jump down California Avenue from SW Lander to SW Edmunds [map]. This past Monday, parade coordinators and committee members gathered for the annual pre-parade lineup meeting, and again this year, we got to observe.

This was the first year that parade applications were accepted online, so instead of the lineup meeting involving a long table topped with dozens of pieces of paper, this time it involved a spreadsheet with color-coded lines, projected onto a wall at the West Seattle Veteran Center/American Legion Post 160, in Pershing Hall, which serves as West Seattle’s only emergency shelter in the cold months.

Parade lineups are an art, not a science, and the descriptions submitted with entries are important in helping coordinators led by Michelle Edwards decide who goes where – it’s all carefully crafted, not just a matter of who shows up when and where on parade morning. But there are invariably last-minute surprises – no-shows, or entries that are nothing like what was described on the entry form. The coordinators just roll with it and make things work.

From the entries discussed at Monday night’s meeting, here’s some of what to look for (but again, it’s all tentative, subject to last-minute changes, cancellations, additions):

Marching bands including the ever-popular Seattle Schools All-City Band, featuring student musicians from all over the district, and Kennedy Catholic High School

Folklorico dancers

Youth groups (including jump-rope and singers)

Cheer teams

Floats from festivals (motorized) to schools (trucks and trailers)

Vessels, from the HomeStreet Bank (WSB sponsor) hydro to a USS Nimitz replica

Classic and antique cars

Fire engines, antique and modern

Seafair Pirates and Clowns

The West Seattle Amateur Radio Club (whose members also help parade coordinators with communication along the parade route)

New entries include the Burien UFO Festival

In all, at least 70 entries are expected, more than last year. The Parade Committee is still working to confirm some entries who signed up early. If you enjoy behind-the-scenes activity, wander the staging zone (California north of Lander, plus Lander on both sides) before the parade start time of 11 am. Parade prep starts hours earlier (and remember the Float Dodger 5K takes off from the West Seattle High School lot at 9:30 am). The parade is presented by the West Seattle Rotary Service Foundation. You can watch anywhere along the route; announcers will be at California/Charlestown and California/Alaska. We’ll have another preview tomorrow!