Salem parade to feature crafts

By D.A. Wilkinson

People can take the Salem trolley from downtown to the antique show.

SALEM — Antiques, floats and eclectic music are expected to draw about 13,000 people Saturday.

The 44th Kiwanis Antique and Craft Show will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Centennial Park.

The Salem Grande Parade will start at 6 p.m. at the Union Avenue and State Street, proceed west on State Street through the downtown, and disband at Ellsworth Avenue.

Audrey Null, the executive director of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, which is coordinating the parade, said the Erie Thunderbirds Drum and Bugle Corps from Erie, Pa., will be taking part in the parade.

Null said the corps may also have time to put on its own show but details haven’t been worked out.

The Thunderbirds has announced its 2008 repertoire includes a tribute to the late jazz great Maynard Ferguson’s “Blue Birdland,” Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” and ends with a medley from the movies, “How the West was Won,” “Hang ’Em High,” and “The Magnificent Seven.”

That’s not typical parade music, but that’s the point. Null said that mixing the elements keeps the events fresh.

Merchants will be having specials, and the chamber’s Quakertown Trolley will ferry people from the downtown to the park.

Mark Equizi, the president of the Kiwanis Club, said the antique show is expected to draw 3,000 people from a wide area.

About 80 antiques vendors are expected along with about 20 crafters.

Some dealers have switched to eBay, but Bruce Williams, a former president of the Kiwanis, said the show still attracts “very high-quality dealers.”

There’s no admission, and even if people don’t buy a thing, they can enjoy the park’s beauty, Williams said.

Null expects about 10,000 people will attend the parade.

“It’s central because everybody loves the parade,” Null said.

The city has been having parades since the Jubilee events in the late 1970s. The parades also draw visitors from all over, Null said.

If people can’t make it to the show or parade, 7 Mile Isle, a steel drum band based in northeastern Ohio, will be performing for free at 6 p.m. Sunday in Waterworth Park.

wilkinson@vindy.com