At 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, a top-secret mission began unfolding in Toronto, when two dozen parade floats left Santa’s workshop and headed to Canada’s Wonderland, to begin filming the annual Santa Parade. Claus.
For the second year in a row, the Santa Claus parade will not take place on the streets of the city, but on television, and the event will be filmed at the Vaughan theme park, which will be broadcast on CTV on December 4.
“A large proportion of our attendees are children under the age of 11 and are not yet vaccinated,” said Clayton Charters, president and CEO of the Santa Claus Parade, adding that the parade has no way of verifying vaccination certificates for the event. .
The parade generally draws hundreds of thousands of participants, some of whom camp out hours in advance to get a privileged spot.
“We wanted to be safe. Santa won’t take chances with his audience, ”said Charters.
Together, the floats run one kilometer long and were escorted by 20 police vehicles on Wednesday. Charters said they attracted quite a bit of attention during the 90 minutes it took them to get from Santa’s secret workshop to the theme park.
While there are fewer floats this year than the all-time high of 32 in 2019, which took place just months before the COVID-19 pandemic closed Toronto in March 2020, there will be people riding the floats and nine gangs participating.
For the first time this year, the parade will be led by a float designed by an indigenous artist with an indigenous theme, Charters said.
The decision to televise the event instead of going live was a difficult one, he added.
It was done in the summer when some COVID restrictions were being lifted, but given the number of people the parade normally brings together and the 1,200 volunteers and logistical partners, which include the Toronto Police and Toronto Paramedic Services, it was the most likely option. safe, he said. said.
Loyal sponsors have kept the parade, which takes all year to produce, build and organize, afloat during the pandemic.
The parade has been held for 117 consecutive years, both through the world wars and the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Charters said he suspects the parade will return to the streets of Toronto next year, in mid-November, as usual.
“We take pride in the fact that we help kick off the holiday season, so a little earlier is good for people to get into the holiday spirit.”
Reference-www.thestar.com