Reprint from the Progress Times - November 9, 2007
©Progress Times 2007 - All Rights Reserved

Texas Citrus Fiesta plans night parade

By Kathy Olivarez

Big changes are coming to the Texas Citrus Fiesta this year. The annual Parade of Oranges, which has been held midday since its beginning, will be a lighted, night parade.

Berta Filut, executive director of the Texas Citrus Fiesta, wants everyone who plans to create a float for the parade to know about the change now so that they have plenty of time to acquire the lights they will need to decorate the floats.

"Rope lights, twinkle lights, spot lights–any kind of Christmas lights can be used to light the floats," said Filut. She warned participants not to count on waiting for the after-Christmas discount sales to find the lights they want. "It’s better to plan to buy them before Christmas and be sure that they have enough."

Filut also suggested those making floats should look at using garlands made of glittering materials to outline the floats. The glitter in the garlands will reflect the lights and help show the outline of the materials.

Float and categories will be the same as in previous years. Product floats will be made from the products grown in the Rio Grande Valley. The Elementary category includes floats for children’s groups such as Boy Scouts and schools. General category floats will be a mixture of groups that do not make product floats. Of course, there will be pageant floats such as the Buccaneer Float from Corpus Christi, and commercial floats such as the H-E-B or Wal-Mart float.

The theme of this year’s fiesta is "Texas Citrus Fiesta Celebrates the City of Mission Centennial." Those who build a float must pick a time period in Mission’s history and build their float around a theme from that time period.

Filut said that because the parade will be celebrating the 100th birthday of Mission, some companies that usually do not participate will be putting floats in the parade. One is a car dealer who plans to have a float showcasing cars from different time periods in Mission.

Shary Municipal Golf Course plans to use a 1920 theme riding on a 1909 John Deere covered wagon because the golf course started in 1920. Those riding the float will dress in period dress.

Filut suggested the tourist parks consider building floats for the year the park was founded. If the park was built in the 1970s, then those who ride the float would wear clothing from the 1970s era.

The signs for the duchesses’ cars will be slightly different as well. They must include the name of the duchess, the city she represents, the date when the city was founded and a historical point of interest within the city. For example the Duchess of Star Ruby Grapefruit would have a sign saying Duchess of Star Ruby Grapefruit, City of Mission, 1908, and perhaps a picture of La Lomita, Mission.

The Fiesta would like floats for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts or other organizations to include the year the organization was founded in their decoration of the float or sign.

For those who are not sure how to go about creating a lighted float, Bill Filut, president of the Texas Citrus Fiesta, will lead two workshops on how to create a lighted float, including generators and adapters for cars that can be used to plug in the lights.

Parade workshops will be held Thursday, November 29 at 1 p.m. and December 13 at 7 p.m. Both workshops will be held at the Mission Community Center, 1420 E. Kika de la Garza Loop. The workshop will teach all parade participants how to light their entries, including bands, youth groups, golf carts, and others in addition to floats. All parade entries will be lighted.

The parade will start its line-up at 4 p.m. and the parade will start at 6:45 p.m.

To accommodate the change in parade time the Fun Fair will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Vaquero cook-off competition and exhibits will also continue until 10 p.m. Filut said two new categories have been added to the vaquero cooking competition: desserts and guacamole. The foods will be set out for judging prior to the parade. They are judged on presentation as well as taste. Filut said fair goers should realize that the food set out on the tables is there to be judged and not to be tasted by anyone other than the judges.

The Texas Citrus Fiesta board of directors is excited by the changes that are planned for the 2008 Texas Citrus Fiesta. They believe the lighted night parade will add a new dimension to the fiesta.

"It does not matter how plain a float is," said Filut. When they are decorated with lights and outlined with glittering garlands, they are all pretty!"

For more information on how to enter a float in the parade or to find out when the workshops will be held, call the Texas Citrus Fiesta office at 585-9724.