The Grand Floral Parade in St. Joseph and Benton Harbor is held on the first Saturday in May in conjunction with the Blossom Time Festival, the oldest and largest multi-community festival in the state of Michigan. It takes place on Main Street starting in St. Joseph, crossing over the bridge and ending in Benton Harbor.
According to the Blossom Time Festival website the festival was started in 1906 inspired by the regions many orchards.
Influenced by a growing agricultural industry, in 1906 Rev.W. J. Cady of the First Congregational Church in Benton Harbor was the first to urge his parishioners to drive through the orchards and view the fruit blossoms. Cady termed them “symbols of life renewed” and his sermon is credited with the birth of the Blossomtime Festival.
Governor Rick Snyder will head up the procession as grand marshal with an honor guard from the Berrien County Sheriffs Department and the Berrien County Mounted Division. Also scheduled to take part in the parade are U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph; state Rep. Sharon Tyler, R-Niles; and state Rep. Al Pscholka, R-Stevensville.
Chris (Eclectablog) and I got to Benton Harbor around noon, parked in Benton Harbor and walk the parade route to the start of the parade in St. Joseph. On our walk, we observed a few things. First of all, there were a ridiculous amount of police cars and officers blocking the roads to the Benton Harbor parade route. I only saw one police car in St. Joseph at one of the road blocks to the parade route. All the other roads were blocked by the standard barricades.
Right before crossing the two bridges over to St. Joseph were a few hundred, mostly white, mostly union, and mostly dressed in red, protesters. That appeared to be the largest gathering of protesters along the route. There were a few other spots with small groups of protesters holding signs.
The Parade began at 1:00 p.m. and it started with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Motorcycle Drill Team followed by three cars, two of which were police cars, and then Governor Snyder’s group. He was walking with two bodyguards. The three of them were walking behind two officers on motorcycles and two girls caring a sign that read “Grand Marshal Honorable Governor Rick Snyder” and a traditional color guard. Following the governor was one police officer and a black SUV. What I observed as I followed the Governor through the 1.8 mile parade route was pretty offensive, in my opinion.
Follow me through the images to see what I observed as I walked (more like ran) the route along with Governor Snyder. He walked the nearly 2 mile route in 39 minutes. No time was wasted, no hands shaken, no real stops, nothing but a fast steady walk that ended in quick disappearance, at the end of the parade, into the black SUV. The end happened so fast that I was unable to get a photograph of him getting into the car.
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