OSWEGO, NY – Once again, hundreds of youngsters participated in what many call the real start of Harborfest – the annual Children’s Parade.
Friday’s parade, from East Park to Fort Ontario, drew an estimated 1,500 participants, from infants to teen-agers.
Many of them were dressed in historic Oswego attire, including Native Americans as well as settler, highlighting the cultural component of the festival – “Historic Oswego.”
Joe Trionfero held dance and music / movie trivia contests prior to the parade to get the youngsters in a festive mood.
Students from the Oswego City/County Youth Bureau were part of a group that blew up balloons for the parade participants and helped fill out lost kid tags among other pre-parade duties.
The parade route was lined with people; many taking pictures of the marchers as they went past. Several costumed characters, including the Novelis Can Man, mingled with the crowd along the parade route.
There were big smiles at the Children’s Stage as the youngsters were treated to a variety of entertainment.
The large crowd outside the historic fort got to see pirates sword fighting up close, thanks to the efforts of The Shadowplayers. The group performs an exciting show of battling swords and whip work with great pirate fun for all ages.
Harborfest entertainment doesn’t slow down today (Saturday) with Savannah Outen presented by the Disney Radio Concert at 11:30 a.m. on the Lakeview Stage.
She will be followed by Joe Whitting at 2:30 p.m., Pete McMahon and the Supernaturals at 4 p.m., Peter Karp and Roadshow at 6 p.m., Jeff Howell and The Cats at 8:15 p.m. and Simplelife at 11:15 p.m.
The River Stage will present the likes of The Chris Terra Band, The Hornitz, e.s.p. and others.
The children’s musical, Tom Sawyer, will be performed on the Fort Ontario Family Stage on Saturday morning and again Saturday evening.
Sandwiched in between will be Glenn Colton at 1 and 4 p.m., The Magic of Virgil at 2:30 p.m. and The MOST (Awesome Polymers) at 3:30 p.m.
The Fort Ontario Children’s Stage will offer plenty of activities for youngsters.
The annual Entergy Nuclear Fireworks Spectacular will light up the sky over the Oswego Harbor at 9:15 p.m. Saturday.
Fireworks by Grucci has provided world-class fireworks displays at Harborfest for the past 21 years. A typical show for Harborfest takes five days to set up.
The Utica Street Bridge as well as the Bridge Street Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic from 9:30 p.m. until midnight following the fireworks.
For more information, visit www.oswegoharborfest.com
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