Decatur Haints and Saints Halloween Parade This Sunday
Decatur Metro | October 22, 2015 | 1:56 pmGet ready for the 4th annual Decatur Haints & Saints Halloween Parade this Saturday!
HOMEGROWN announced that the annual HAINTS & SAINTS Halloween Parade returns to the streets of downtown Decatur Sunday, October 25th.
Decatur’s HAINTS & SAINTS has grown steadily since its introduction in 2011 and this year promises to be the best so far! Local marching and brass bands, tricked out hearses, floats, classic cars and, best of all, Decatur residents and visitors taking to the streets to get their weird on!
Line up for the HAINTS & SAINTS Halloween Parade begins at 3 p.m. for vehicles and floats at the Decatur Post office, located at 520 W.Ponce de Leon Ave., followed by the walkers at 3:30. Anyone may walk or roll in the parade; floats, bands, and groups larger than 5 can register online at www.decaturhalloweenparade.com. As the parade begins at 4 p.m., the police will do a rolling closure in front of the parade.
Wait! There’s more fantastic weird fun to come! As the parade wraps up, let the HAINTS & SAINTS Jam commence! Bands, including, Wasted Potential Brass Band, Black Sheep Ensemble, Mercury Orkestar, Scofflaw and NEW this year: The Common Ground Collective will take turns jamming on the square.
After getting your parade and jam on, be sure to visit one of the many amazing restaurants and watering holes in downtown Decatur; many will be offering specials for parade participants.
Sponsors for this year’s parade include HomeGrown Decatur, Butter and Cream, The Marlay House, Little Shop of Stories, The Square Pub, Wild Oats and Billy Goats, Squash Blossom and Twain’s Brewpub.
Information and details at www.decaturhalloweenparade.com
This makes me happy. Quick everyone, go get your tricked out hearse out of dry dock.
*Thanks 4/5. I met Grand Marshall OGSJ (or so he says) at Trackside this evening and he said, “Oh come on Chris. You like GOT TO BE THERE MAN! Time to get your Fu__in’ Weird On Dude! (not word for word but if you know “Original Gansta” SJ, it’s close). I politely declined and wished him well. (FYI- I think the Grand Marshall is a unique Decatur citizen and Child of God. I am thankful he is here and part of the true diversity of our town).
That being said, you will learn more about the future of Decatur politics from watching/participating (in) this event than attending the Sunday candidate forum at Decatur Heights. For old geezers like me, forums, direct mail, web sites, DM&Decaturish and neighbor endorsements are critical pieces of electoral information but in the future, it will be all about promoting weirdness, alcohol (and certainly other drugs once Democrats regain control of state government) and, most important of all, government dependency and higher taxes.
But not to worry. Those of you who think this event and other so called festivals are A-OK and the wave of Decatur’s future well, you are correct. But what I ask is that you stop and think. How weird will this and other Decatur festivals be in five years?
Now that’s a frightning thought isn’t it? Happy Halloween!
*I wrote this Friday evening shortly after returning home from the “World Famous” Trackside Tavern which is, as we all know, not a bar cuz Decatur don’t allow no stick in’ bars. I prudently followed the advice of my mentor Dan who suggested last year, “You know Chris, you would be more influential if you leave the inflammatory rhetoric out of your posts.” So this morning, I removed the “F” word. Thanks Big Dan!
Yes, it’s terrible that a bunch of like minded community members get together and do something, I dunno, as a community. The weirder the better IMHO.
Thanks for your honesty Dawg. For you and many others, “the weirder the better”. Best of luck with that.
The dreaded slippery slope! Once set into motion it can never be turned back! Sure, it may start with brass bands and classic cars and craft beers and the weirdness, but before long Decatur will be just like Asheville, the Sodom of the west of the north of the south.
So true, So true. It starts with people (gulp) dressing up around Halloween and, next thing you know, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together…mass hysteria!….or worse…Austin.
seen it with my own eyes, I would never believe this to be true. Soap boxes being raced the streets of fair Oakhurst! Mobs of rowdy hooligans crowding the sidewalks, urging on the spectacle like hounds baying at the scent of blood!
And need I remind you, just last week, of the veritable plague of minstrels? Terrified townsfolk flee from house to house only to discover yet another pack of leering crooners. Home and hearth debased into tawdry honkey-tonks! And on the Sabbath no less!
Thanks Friend. Because I was busy at Decatur Heights Church, I couldn’t attend the parade but later had dinner at the Malay and experienced the tail end of the parade. Our watress, one of my former students at DHS, described it as pretty wild but she made good tips from all the parents who brought their kids for the show.
This brought to mind my last beer festival appearence. The organizers apparently made a mistake and awarded my group (DHS Close Up) a very nice grant (I write this because when, after receiving the acceptance letter, I contacted the beer fest folks who told me, “Oh no. We would never award a grant to your organization*”. When I sent a copy of the award letter, they responded “OK, BUT THIS IS THE LAST TIME*- *paraphrasing of course). Anyway, I asked some C.U. parents and personal friends to volunteer. After a great time at the festival, I remember walking down Church Street and seeing two guys holding up a girl as she bent over to vomit on the sidewalk. The look on her face reminded me of the drunken fools at West Ga. college back in the early seventies. I thought at the time, and still believe today, that this is the unseen face of our festivals. Young adults so drunk that tears and vomit stream down their faces. What happened to this young woman, who was at the mercy of her male companions, I will never know. That was my last beer festival.
I see that DM and Decaturish posted some fairly tame pics of Sunday night’s affair. And you will undoubtedly see more positive images at the Decatur Minute and other sites. But they only show what the city wants to portray. The R and X rated images of our festivals never make the mainstream blogs or the AJC.
One final shot. You have all make fun of my comments but there are many in this town who view this as borderline debauchery. One of my classmates in the Decatur Police Academy told me recently that she and her family don’t do Decatur festivals. I suspect that she is just a little embarrassed by the adults acting like high school kids at their first keg party.
So I ask you again, what will these civic activities look like in five years, Little Five Points and Midtown affairs? That’s not the Decatur I know and love.
Geez, Louise. That was a toned down “Jesus Christ”.
” The R and X rated images of our festivals never make the mainstream blogs or the AJC.”
I just…cannot stop laughing at this. Oh, Mr. B–sometimes, the entertainment value from comments like this one is worth the head-shaking and grimacing that your comments in general cause.
“I see that DM and Decaturish posted some fairly tame pics of Sunday night’s affair. And you will undoubtedly see more positive images at the Decatur Minute and other sites. But they only show what the city wants to portray. The R and X rated images of our festivals never make the mainstream blogs or the AJC.”
Nope. I was there with small children. It really was that tame.
Decaturish didn’t post any pictures from this year’s parade, only one from last year’s. That one was tame, too. I was at that one with small children.
Mr B doesn’t know what the parental rating of the festivals are because, by his own admission, he’s never there.