The Parade Of Lights, Minus The Parade

This is the weekend when the Parade of Lights traditionally takes place here in Denver. However, due to the coronavirus,  the event has been changed to promote social distancing. Instead of a parade, which usually takes place on Friday and Saturday evenings, the floats that usually appear in the parade will be scattered around downtown Denver, such as the 5280 Magazine float seen in the photo on the left. The usual live TV broadcast of the event will be replaced by a compilation of scenes from previous parades.

Each year I have dutifully gone down to the 16th Street Mall to take photographs of the parade, which to be honest, I have never found to be especially fun. No matter how warm it gets during the daytime around here, once the sun sets, it gets cold as hell, and there is a lot of standing around until the parade materializes at the spot where you are waiting. Plus, there is always a huge crowd, and because of this, it is tough to get a good photograph of the floats as they go by, unless you show up hours early, and get a front row seat. On the other hand, having the floats placed in a fixed spot makes them easier to photograph, and you can even visit in the daytime. However, I must admit that not having people on these floats waving and throwing candy at the crowd takes a lot of the fun out of the experience. Maybe the city could hire people to stand on them, and wave at visitors in the evenings, to make the experience more authentic. Perhaps they could even hire some of the many homeless people around the area these days to do this. Just a thought, of course.