Visitors are filling Island beaches, men on ladders are cleaning street lanterns along Main street Edgartown and an endless line of cars waits behind the stop sign at the Triangle — all indicators that it’s July Fourth week.
Tomorrow is the national holiday. This will be Edgartown’s 43rd consecutive year hosting its annual Independence Day parade. A crowd of thousands of Islanders and visitors will line Main street to witness another year’s string of marchers and floats.
The Edgartown police department will begin closing streets to traffic along the parade route in downtown Edgartown tomorrow between 4 and 4:30 p.m. Streets will remain closed until 7 p.m. Parking is available at the Park and Ride at the Triangle in Edgartown. A trolley service will be running in and out of town. Parking for people with handicaps is available at the intersection of Cooke street and West Tisbury Road.
The parade steps off from the Edgartown School at 5 p.m. sharp.
Leading the parade will be Vineyard veterans, including the American Legion of Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven. Close behind will be the police and fire department, and the county sheriff in his top hat and tails.
The Bay State Band will be back again to march in the parade and perform at the Whaling Church at 7 p.m. The Colonial Navy will also march.
Next in line are floats representing organizations and businesses from across the Island. Camp Jabberwocky will be debuting an Olympic-themed float up front. The Boathouse in Edgartown will bring a pirate-themed float. Island Spirit Kayak will be showing their Jaws-themed float, complete with a 12-foot shark head constructed out of carpet. Island Spirit owner Chick Stapleton has participated in the Fourth of July parade for eight years. “It’s good for team building, and a fun thing for us to do,” Ms. Stapleton said. “It’s also good for advertising.”
For others, float building is a solitary art. Celia Gillis, an Island resident, volunteered for the second year to be a one-woman operation in the building of a float for Angel Flight, the nonprofit organization that arranges free flights to and from off-Island medical facilities for Vineyard residents with chronic illness. This year, Mrs. Gillis is transforming her red Jeep into Snoopy’s doghouse to allude to the Snoopy and the Red Baron comic strip. “It’s American and patriotic,” said Mrs. Gillis. The comic depicts Snoopy as a World War I pilot. “He won’t quite be the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Snoopy, but he’s about four feet tall with a four or five-foot tall house,” she said, adding that he will be wearing his aviation goggles.
New businesses will also join the ranks. Huckleberry Pink, a body products store in Edgartown, is working on a beach party-themed float for its first parade. “As a new business, our whole purpose is to be part of the community,” said co-owner Tanya Patnaude. “There’s no better way than the Fourth of July parade.”
The 10- to 15-year-old members of the RISE Vineyard Performing Arts dance company will dance along the parade route to well-known patriotic tunes, inviting onlookers to join in the fun.
Fireworks over the harbor will begin at dusk, or roughly 9 p.m. This is the first year the fireworks are being funded by the town and not the Edgartown Board of Trade. “The town thought it should be sponsored by the town,” said board of trade president Maggie White, who owns the Hob Knob Inn. Otherwise, the fireworks will be the same. “Same company, same show, same terrific-ness,” Ms. White said.
Many year-round residents will join the celebration, including Pat Morgan, a resident of Vineyard Haven for more than 20 years, who will attend this year with her granddaughter, who is 15. “It’s a real hometown parade,” she said. “The Jabberwocky Camp makes it so unique and so much fun,” she said. “And the fireworks are great.”
Kelley Cannon is excited to be back on the Island for the holiday after many years away. She remembers the parade fondly, she said. “It’s just very Norman Rockwell-y, small-town Americana. It’s family-focused. It’s just fun.”
And Edgartown’s is not the only parade on the Island. Aquinnah will host its eighth annual children’s parade on Old South Road at 11 a.m. The parade, which is organized by homeowners along Old South Road, will feature the Aquinnah police department, face painting, a display of antique cars, and a treasure hunt on Philbin Beach. Spectators can park at the parking lot at Philbin Beach. “Each year it seems to be getting bigger and more popular,” said police Chief Randhi Belain.
The Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association children will also gather to parade around the Tabernacle circle at 9:30 a.m. And Vineyard residents of all ages prepare to take on the July heat to celebrate another American birthday.
The parade route in Edgartown is as follows: The parade begins at the intersection of West Tisbury and Pinehurst Roads. It takes a right onto Main street and then a left onto Pease’s Point Way (next to the monument). It follows Pease’s Point Way and then takes a right onto Morse street, a left onto Fuller street and a right onto Thayer street. At the end of Thayer it takes a right onto North Water street. Then it takes a right up Main street and pauses in front of the reviewing stand (in front of the Whaling Church). It continues up Main street and then takes a left onto the West Tisbury Road and finishes at the Edgartown School.
To register for the parade go to the town website or call the selectmen’s office at 508-627-6180.
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