The 2012 Christmas Pageant parade in Adelaide is a whopper. Three hundred and twenty thousand people line the city streets to watch dancers, bands, clowns and every kind of children’s float you can imagine run through the center of downtown. This parade is for and about children. Founded eighty years ago some of the floats are still in use (like the elephant you see in this photo.) Here are some of the sights we saw while standing on the sidewalk on King William Street, the main street of Adelaide.
Alice in Wonderland
Where the Wild Things Are
Nigerian Dancers
Ukranian Dancers
A Shiny Kangaroo
Bollywood Dancers
Pageant King and Queen
The Crowd
MedFlies 
I love a parade! Were there bands other than bagpipes (like high school bands etc)? I like that everything seems to homemade and not commercial. I also love that it appears to be quite the community event with so many people that lined the streets. Grand Rapids has a Christmas parade on Thanksgiving weekend but the crowds are pretty thin. Probably has something to do with the cold weather! I love that you continually find the “local color”.
Everything in this parade was local. It was founded by a childless couple who owned the biggest department store in town. We got to see their house, Carrick Hill, another museum today.Aussies are proud of their history, short as it may be. There were lots of bands. A number were bag pipers dressed in full regalia…loved the drum majors. There were no high school bands that I saw. Bands come from the communities all around Adelaide. They carry banners that show their town’s name. The Aussie band in the photo with the khakis and outback hats are one of those. The weather here, like Santa Barbara, was a perfect parade day. I am sure that does make a difference. The parade lasted about an hour and a half. That is a long time to stand in winter in Grand Rapids.
We seek out local events. We have found they tell us a lot about the culture we are visiting and that is really our number one interest in traveling.
Hey, looks like you will get to see part of the solar eclipse!
http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/total-solar-eclipse-november-2012.html
Yes. We should see part of it. The full show is to be up around Cairns I think, near the Great Barrier Reef. Only problem is it is cloudy up there today. Everyone is waiting on the beach in the rain waiting for it. It is sunny and clear here so we have a good chance to view it. J
did I miss something here? Is it Christmas down under?
Hi Nancy: The Christmas parade is early to let all of the little kiddies visit Santa in his “cave” at the biggest department store in Adelaide. They celebrate the 25th of December too down here. You have all of your marbles.
Are those republican elephants…………..?
No…South African
Kinda like the Ithaca Festival parade on a gigantic dose of steroids. What fun! I especially love the kangaroo.
What kind of street food do you find at a parade in Adelaide?
It is like a cross between Ithaca and Santa Barbara’s Solstice Day Parade but for kids. Hmmm…No street food that I could see except coffees. Only outside of Seattle have I seen so many independent coffee shops.
Looks like an international elaborate affair, much more than their Australia’s demographics would suggest. Lovely costumes!
Adelaide is an interesting assortment of people. There are many, many, many Asians. You here Chinese and Korean spoken frequently in the street and as people talk on cell phones. Otherwise though Adelaide seems very homogeneous. I don’t see a lot of tourists of any nationality. People we talk to are surprised we are spending three months in Adelaide and wonder what we fine to do. “No worries.” We find plenty but then we search for those “hidden delights.”