By Madison Fisler Lewis
Dec. 1, 2014. On Saturday, Nov. 29, downtown Blowing Rock came alive with the hustle and bustle that can only mean one thing – time for the annual Blowing Rock Christmas Parade! Starting at 2 p.m., the parade marched down Main Street past throngs of excited onlookers, featuring dancers, musicians, creative floats, local celebrities and more.
This year, an estimated 5,000 people attended the popular annual event, in keeping with previous years, and the town enjoyed an influx of visitors to the High Country area.
“We have a ton of people that come in from off the mountain,” said Billie Rogers, events coordinator for the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce.
“Right now, our population is about 1,400, and we had about 5,000 people at the parade. Now, that includes people from Boone and the surrounding areas, but it also includes a lot of people from Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro and other places. This event really helps out everyone downtown. People from off the mountain come to town, enjoy the parade, get a Christmas tree, go shopping and stay the whole weekend. We had at least one business tell us that Friday was one of the best days they have ever had business wise. There were a lot of hotels that were very full, so everyone was very happy.”
Floats this year included themes like Disney’s Frozen, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and much more.
“I heard that floats this year were the best they had ever been,” Rogers said. “We had a number of entries, and it was fantastic to see everyone in town in such good spirits. We had a lot of businesses take part this year, and we had several businesses that had something to follow the parade. It really puts you in the Christmas spirit.”
Along with the floats, performances included live music, clogging and dancing, and of course, a special visit from Santa Claus himself to round out the event.
Check out photos of the Blowing Rock Christmas Parade below.
Photos by Ken Ketchie
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