- Saturday April 26
- 2pm
- Rain or Shine
- Starting at Edgewood & Euclid
- Ending at Euclid & Austin via Hurt
Inman Park is proud to present Atlanta’s quirkiest and most colorful parade led by the Inman Park butterfly and followed by marching bands, floats, art cars, drill teams, mascots, clowns, jugglers, politicians and much, much more.
The AJC considers the parade one of 10 Things Every Atlanta Resident Should Do:
Take in a parade with personality. (Intown Atlanta) Inman Park Spring Festival’s parade is a people watching paradise. Colorful costumes, creative themes, and the Seed & Feed Marching Abominable invite spring with sass and funk.
Route
- This favorite of Festival begins at Edgewood Ave and Euclid Ave.
- From there it runs east on Edgewood to Hurt St.
- Continuing on north via Hurt St, until it reaches Euclid Ave.
- Completing its last leg by marching northeast on Euclid Ave through Freedom Park, ending at Euclid Ave and Austin Ave.
Parade Sponsor
2024 Grand Marshals
The Seed & Feed Marching Abominable (S&FMA) is this year’s Parade Grand Marshals in honor of their 50th anniversary. In addition to musicians in this all-volunteer band are Despicables–dancers and twirlers–the “muscle” who keep a lookout to prevent members from falling in holes and tripping over hazards. S&FMA members range in age from high schoolers to grand dame Josie Starnes.
From Kelly Morris, founder of S&FMA: “The band made its first important (really public) appearance in the 1975 Inman Park Festival Parade….The band knew five tunes, all marches….The band had no parade experience at all, so it tried to play the entire route. Lips blew out, faces turned crimson and purple, big blisters formed. But the band was being born and the players were young and determined….The crowd loved them. And a valuable lesson was learned for all time: pace the band, save the wind players, play only where the crowd is thickest. At the end of the parade, players flung themselves on the ground in exhaustion. The way the band looked at the moment sparked an idea: what if, in the middle of a march, the drums go slower and slower and the band melts into a big death scene in the middle of the street. We decided to rehearse it–and over the years, it has become the band’s most enduring bit of business….Music, drums, pageantry, unbidden, unbought. A moment of delight and generosity and laughter among humans. That was the basic idea.”
S&FMA has played more than 1,200 events “for the looney joy of it” since their start in 1974.
Congrats, S&FMA–may you melt into “big death scenes” forever!
