6:00pm - Ithaca Festival Mile

6:30 - Ithaca Festival Parade

A Volvo dons a tutu and performs elegant glissades down Cayuga Street.  Not far behind, a book-loving caterpillar creeps and crawls, while a marching band playing chainsaws follows closely behind.  What the heck is going on here?  Why, it’s the Ithaca Festival Parade, of course!  A much-beloved Ithaca Festival tradition, the Ithaca Festival Parade is irreverent, zany, and heavily self-referential.  Dozens of community groups (both extant and ad hoc), local non-profits, performing artists, and businesses participate to make this one of the most memorable events of the year.

The Thursday night festivities begin at 6:00 with the Ithaca Festival Mile (come and cheer on the runners!), followed immediately by the parade.  The parade route runs down Cayuga Street, starting in Fall Creek at Lewis Street and ends at Dewitt Park on Buffalo Street. 

 Stop by Dewitt Park after the parade festivities to sample some of our concessions and mingle with some of your friends and neighbors.