WEST BEND, Wis. — Thousands of people packed the streets of downtown West Bend on Sunday for the city’s annual Christmas parade.
This is the 70th year for the holiday tradition making it the longest running Christmas parade in the entire state of Wisconsin
“We always come to West Bend! It’s tradition,” said Kewaskum resident, Cat Brown. “We come every single year.”
While the event was gearing up for its seventh decade in operation, organizers say a lot of changes were made to promote safety in light of devastation at parade events in both Waukesha and Highland Park, Illinois the past year.
“Just from a security standpoint, making sure people are safe and secure, that’s really our goal,” said Mike Husar, parade chairman. “You can see we have the roads blocked off, the police and the city have done a phenomenal job of securing the intersections and doing everything needed.”
It was Razzli Wright’s first time visiting the parade on Sunday saying, “It’s just spectacular I didn’t expect something like this.”
He says past tragedies at parades and a disheartening trend of violence toward group events wasn’t enough to stop him from enjoying his holiday at gatherings like this.
“I feel like wherever you go there’s gonna be danger no matter what. That’s just a part of life, you know what mean?” said Wright. “So I feel like I just take it one day at a time and that’s all you can do at the end of the day.”
Long-time parade goers agreed, saying they had no plans of missing the event this year.
“No hesitation, no, not at all. And none to come,” said Brown. “We still just want to live our lives and get out here and not let fear stop us.”
With added police enforcements and barricades, people walking in the route and standing on the sidelines say they felt safe to enjoy their night, as they do every year.
