Fremont Solstice Parade Turns 25

A popular celebration of summer in Seattle happens Saturday in the Fremont neighborhood. It’s the annual Solstice Parade.

What’s unusual about it, is that everything in the parade is human-powered and created by hand. There are no cars, no animals, nothing hooked up to a battery.

Lonn Holiday is the self-proclaimed Grand Marshal of the parade every year. He’s been marching in front, setting the pace since the Solstice Parade began a quarter century ago.

“I was a member of something called the Silly Willy Wilderness Club,” said Holiday. “A couple of people came up from Santa Barbara and at one point asked some of us, ’want to do a parade?.’ And we’re, ‘Well, sure!’ and that was 25 years ago.”

Holiday says that once again, the popular painted group of naked bicyclists will be riding in the event.

This year’s Solstice Parade will have a different start-time from years past. It will begin at 3:00 PM instead of noon, in order to accommodate the road closures earlier in the day for Seattle’s Rock-and-Roll marathon.