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Parade, tree lighting highlight Kannapolis holiday celebration
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Published: December 4, 2009
KANNAPOLIS — The Kannapolis Christmas Parade, which will feature more than 100 entries, and the annual tree lighting event at Village Park are scheduled for Saturday.
Recording industry pioneer Eddie Ray, a recent inductee into the N.C. Music Hall of Fame and curator of the hall of fame in downtown Kannapolis, will serve as the grand marshal for the parade.
Ray was the first African-American vice president of a major recording label and signed Pink Floyd to its first major recording contract.
The parade will begin at 4 p.m. at Main and West D streets, and then will proceed down Main Street in front of the David H. Murdock Core Lab on the North Carolina Research Campus before turning left and moving briefly up Laureate Way.
Organizers are asking participants to bring a donation of a toy to the parade and tree lighting, which will include a Toys for Tots drive. Marines will walk the parade route collecting the donations, which will go to the Empty Stocking Fund sponsored by the Cannon YMCA and Cooperative Christian Ministry.
Food and beverage vendors along the route also plan to donate a portion of the proceeds from their sales to Toys for Tots.
Folks can begin gathering at 6:30 p.m. in Village Park for the tree lighting ceremony. The events will begin at 7 p.m. and include performances by the A.L. Brown Marching Band and the Choral Academy, which features students from first grade to high school. There also will be a fireworks presentation.
Twenty-five displays and nearly 100 trees decorated with more than 130,000 lights will be on display this year in Village Park.
Featured exhibits include the soldiers that once stood around the lake in front of Cannon Mills and the Happy Holidays display that floated in the middle of the lake. This year also includes a 125-foot tunnel of lights and a 23-foot tall lighthouse.
Those attending the parade and tree lighting are encouraged to park in existing lots downtown behind Oak Avenue, the parking deck next to the Core Lab, and other surface lots on the edges of downtown. Signs will be in place directing event traffic.
The following roads will close at 11 a.m. until the end of the parade: 100 block of West A Street and 100 block of West B Street. The following streets will be closed from 2 p.m. until after the parade: Main Street from DE Boulevard to Cabarrus Avenue; West D Street from DE Boulevard to Main Street; and West F Street from DE Boulevard to Main Street.
The remainder of the route will close at 3:45 p.m. Police will assist citizens with access to the train station via Southern Avenue during the event.
The parade and tree lighting are presented by CMC-NorthEast, the Kannapolis Intimidators and the City of Kannapolis.
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