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Arts & Entertainment

St. Louis Cinco de Mayo Parade Features Bikes, Puppets, Music

Event runs 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday in St. Louis.

Live music with a Latin and a rock flavor, art demonstrations and a quirky, colorful parade highlight Cinco de Mayo on Cherokee Street. The event starts runs from 11 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. Saturday in south St. Louis.

“It’s definitely one of the most unique parades that I’ve ever seen,” said Jason Deem, who co-organizes the celebration with Will Liebermann. “It’s something I think would only happen on Cherokee, because we’ve got so many artists and so many creative people who come together to make it happen."

The festival, in its 15th year, has grown in size each year. Because May 5 falls on a Saturday, organizers have added a third stage, additional vendors and expect to see lots of people.

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Fifteen local rock bands and Latino music groups will perform on three stages.

The People’s Joy Parade, organized by the Community Arts and Media Project (CAMP), offers an eclectic mix of parade participants.

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Jenny Shriner, CAMP’s events coordinator, said the parade draws artists who create fun costumes, area performers including stilt walkers, children and families.

The mix typically features art bikes and cars that are decorated—the Banana Bike Brigade was one of the highlights of the Mardi Gras Festival — and the art cars include the Cinco de Volvos and El Caminos carrying performers.

In addition, there will be puppets carried on huge bamboo frames, angels, a good-luck dragon, dance troupes, roller derby girls, Elvis impersonators, Mexican wrestlers, non-traditional marching bands and floats that are only limited by the imaginations of the people assembling them.

“We’re going to have all sorts of fantastic delights,” Shriner said. “It’s going to be really cool. We just have all different types of people participate. The really creative, best of the best of St. Louis come out for this one.”

People can spectate, or they can participate even last minute. People can sign permission slips the day of the event. Shriner, who conducted costume workshops in April, said the sky’s the limit.

“They can use old Halloween costumes, they can be creative and paint their face – we’ll have some face painters down there doing some face painting for the kids,” she said. “We’re just really trying to reach out and get people involved, because it’s so much fun.”

A foot beat choir, led by Celia Shacklett, will include guitarists, tuba players, saxophonist and ukulele.

"We’re going to have some kiddos singing too, so people are welcome to join in with that group if they want to, on parade day," Shriner said. "They call it the foot beat choir because you’re dancing in the street and singing at the same time.”

The parade starts at 1:11 p.m. at the corner of Cherokee and Minnesota. It will head east on Cherokee to Nebraska, north on Nebraska to Utah, east on Utah to Iowa, south on Iowa to Cherokee, and east on Cherokee to Texas. Participants will meet at noon to get organized.

Shriner is enthusiastic about the possibilities.

“It’s going to be so amazing,” she said. “I’m really excited for it. It’s a fun way to celebrate our fantastic community on Cherokee.”

Getting there

From Highway 40 or 44, exit at Jefferson and go south. Continue south on Jefferson about 1-2 miles to Cherokee. To go towards the Festival Area make a right on Cherokee. The festival area starts at Iowa and Cherokee

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