Tractors, combines featured in Ag Parade
Santa waves from the back of a float during the 2013 Ag Appreciation Parade. The 2-14 parade is Friday.
MOSES LAKE - Tractors, stackers, combines and trucks will be decorated to the nines and then roll down Third Avenue Friday, a tribute to the season and the agriculture industry. The Ag Appreciation Parade starts at 7 p.m. Friday and will be celebrating its 20th anniversary.
The parade is preceded by a "street party," beginning at 5 p.m., according to information from the Moses Lake Business Association, which sponsors the parade. Dale Roth is in charge of entertainment and will be master of ceremonies.
The parade celebrates Moses Lake's agricultural heritage and agriculture's continuing economic importance, and serves as a kickoff for the Christmas season, said MLBA director Jasmyne DeBeaumont in an earlier interview. It might be snowing, it might be cold; the 2013 parade battled single-digit temperatures and blustery winds. People come out to watch anyway, DeBeaumont said.
The freezing weather caused spectators at the 2013 parade to take shelter inside open businesses, and some businesses are upscaling the arrangement by offering seats at the front window, "window suites," for parade watchers.
About 20 combines and tractors, big rigs, emergency response equipment and even a few horses hit the parade route in 2013.
The Rockin' B cloggers and performers from Dance FX will be on the Sinkuse Square stage at 5 p.m., followed at 5:30 p.m. by the choral group Voices of A New Day. The band Nomad will perform live from 6 to 7 p.m.
The Marine Corps and KWIQ broadcasting will be conducting a Toys for Tots drive during the evening. Dr. Rory Knapp and his staff will be serving doughnuts and cider.
Moses Lake High School music students will be playing and singing carols along Third Avenue before the parade. Frontier Middle School students will be selling hot dogs, coffee and cocoa throughout the evening from their spot in Sinkuse Square.
Santa will be available for pictures and to consult on Christmas wishes from 5 to 7 p.m. at Red Door, 116 West Third Ave. It being December, there will be a roaring fire in a fire pit on Third Avenue, and kids will have the opportunity to roast marshmallows.
The parade will feature modern farm equipment, vintage farm equipment, farm trucks and long haul trucks, and Grant County Fire District No. 5 will take their traditional place at the tail end.