Organizers of Pasadena’s yearly celebration of the weird, the Doo Dah Parade, are promising their biggest year yet when the 45th annual procession gets underway Sunday.
“Taking to the streets will be dozens of inventive, if zany, art cars, mutant vehicles, marching, rocking, and punk bands, and a memorable cast of performance artists, showstoppers, hoofers and crooners, disruptors, political pundits, satirists, absurdists, lone wolves, float makers, and merrymakers,” parade officials said.
Sunday’s lineup includes more than 100 entries, its largest number ever.
The procession steps off at 11 a.m. at Raymond Avenue and Holly Street, heads south and turns right onto Colorado Boulevard, ending at Pasadena Avenue. It is expected to conclude at about 1 p.m.
An after-party will be held at Old Towne Pub, 66 N. Fair Oaks Ave., with live bands and no cover charge. An all-ages after-party is scheduled for Dog Haus Pasadena, 93 E. Green St., which will also include live music.
The parade is free to the public, with some street parking available, though organizers also point out that the parade route is conveniently located near the Gold Line Memorial Park Station and Pasadena Transit bus stops.
Known as the “twisted sister” of the conventional Rose Parade on Jan. 1, the Doo Dah Parade began as a grassroots event in 1978 to gain national attention for its eccentric satire. The parade, which has spawned numerous off-beat replicants across the country, is co-produced by Light Bringer Project and the Doo Dah Preservation Society.
New entrants this year include The Beatles Reunited, Bob Ross Painting Lesson, Stop Drop and Disco, Mike Dunn Jazz Funeral, The Flat Earth Society, Society for the Preservation of the Quill Pen, California Jones & the Paraders of the Found Snark, and Rocka Chewbacca, an “out of this world Wookiee Rock band.”
And organizers promised that “not a rose will be harmed in the making of this parade!”
More information can be found at pasadenadoodahparade.info.