West Seattle Grand Parade 2015, report #2: The winners!

(UPDATED SUNDAY MORNING: Float winners added)

(WSB photos by Tracy Record and Patrick Sand)
During the West Seattle Grand Parade, a lot happens behind the scenes. While parade staffers get the entries out of the gate at the north end of the route, pacing them depending on a variety of factors, there’s more going on along the route – volunteer ham-radio operators are communicating what’s going on at various points along the route, and at secret points along the way, judges are reviewing the entries as they pass. That leads to a list of awards we publish post-parade each year – here it is:

2015 West Seattle Grand Parade
Produced by the West Seattle Rotary Foundation

OVERALL PARADE WINNERS

1st Seattle School All-City Marching Band

2nd Luna Park Cafe

3rd WestSide Baby – Stuff the Bus

BANDS

1st Kennedy Catholic High School Marching Band

2nd Pacific Northwest Drumline

CARS & ANTIQUE CARS

1st Friend to Friend America

2nd West Seattle Lions Club

3rd 1942 American LaFrance Fire Engine

COMMERCIAL

1st Hotwire Coffee (both photos above)

2nd Mountain to Sound Outfitters (above)

3rd Spring Free Trampoline (above)

COMMUNITY

1st Our Lady of Guadalupe

2nd Delridge Grocery Co-op

3rd Calvary Chapel

DRILL TEAMS, SENIOR

1st The Lady’s of Elegance Drill Team (see video here)

2nd Electronetts Drill Team & Drum Squad

3rd Seattle Chinese Community Girls Drill Team

DRILL TEAMS, JUNIOR

1st The Princesses of Elegance Drill Team (see video here)
2nd Washington Diamonds Drill Team
3rd Butterfly Electronetts Drill Team

PERFORMING ACTS

1st Joyas Mestizas – Seattle Mexican Folk Dance Youth

2nd Seafair Clowns

3rd Seafair Pirates

(added Sunday) FLOATS

1st Place – WS Rotary Foundation Trophy – Marysville Strawberry Festival

CONVEYED FLOATS

1st Place – Hope Lutheran Church and School

2nd Place – Holy Rosary School and Sun Dancers

Still adding LOTS MORE photos (and some video to come) of the winning entries. And we have other parade stories in the works – the Kiddie Parade too!

Silly Goose July 18, 2015 (8:23 pm)

As we sat sweating in the heat watching advertisment after advertisment march by we wondered what has happened to all the local communities entering their floats in our parade? Did something happen, not even Burien this year and Tacoma has beautiful floats they stopped attending 3 years ago, what is going on?

WSB July 18, 2015 (9:26 pm)

SG, I don’t recall Burien having a float. Very few communities do – as we write repeatedly about West Seattle Hi-Yu, WS is the only Seattle community left with a float (and an all-volunteer organization that could use more help to keep that going). In some cases appearances are a matter of reciprocity, but there can be a conflict. For example, Olympia has its parade the same afternoon, and that takes priority for some. In the years we’ve been covering it – and we attended for many years before starting WSB – it’s never been a particularly float-heavy parade. (If it was before the mid-’90s, that was before m parade-going time.) For example, I just looked back at the official lineup for 2008 – seven years ago – and there were three community floats: Hi-Yu, Marysville Strawberry Festival (which was in it again today), and Port Orchard Fathoms of Fun (which has sent royalty in a car instead for a few years). This has long been a parade heavy on community participants like organizations, schools, churches, businesses, plus the Seafair entries, drill teams from around the city, All-City Band. – Tracy

Dan July 19, 2015 (7:13 am)

I’m curious about the judging and the prize categories. I was on a float and official-looking judges came by in the staging area to look at it. 10-15 minutes later they came back and gave us a 1st place trophy, but we are nowhere on the list of winners posted here. Are there other float subcategories not listed?

WSB July 19, 2015 (7:51 am)

Dan, this is the entire list as provided to us at mid-afternoon by parade coordinators – as described to us, judges are along the route and meet after the parade to make their decisions. But I’ve sent a note to ask.

HRS July 19, 2015 (9:42 am)

Echoing Dan’s question. Our school’s float got a second place trophy before the parade began, but isn’t on these lists.

WSB July 19, 2015 (10:19 am)

Hi – I just heard back from coordinators – they forgot to include the float trophies, which WERE handed out pre-parade. So I will be adding those – have photos but we’re out covering other stuff right now and I can’t add the pix until I get back. – TR

Silly Goose July 19, 2015 (11:14 am)

@TracyWSB Tacoma was another of our favorites and they didn’t attend this year and YES they do have a float this year!

WSB July 19, 2015 (12:09 pm)

The Daffodil Festival does always have a float. This year they went to the Lakefair parade I mentioned earlier:
.
http://thedaffodilfestival.org/events/parades/out-of-town-parades/

Jim July 19, 2015 (10:42 pm)

About 15 years ago Seafair spread it’s elbows and added a week between Torchlight parade, which use to be on a Friday, and the hydroplane races on Sunday of the same weekend. That put West Seattle up against other parades in the area that have had long standing dates. Most of the big regional festivals are in a festival association which places contractual commitments on these festivals to appear at at fellow association member parades. The only way to escape this handicap would be to move the event out of the summer, and try and find a weekend where there isn’t an event going on. Good luck with that. As stated earlier the economics have changed. 15 years ago we would have a warehouse in SODO full of parade floats for two weeks, that would just convoy from parade to parade for all of Seafair. That just doesn’t happen anymore.

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