The parade committee is sad to announce that the BCS Christmas Parade is cancelled.
For 93 years, the BCS Christmas Parade successfully traversed the roadways of Bryan/College Station. This year, the committee was presented with a new challenge that became apparent when the State mandated medians were installed along Texas Avenue in Bryan and College Station. The concrete medians reduced the size of the parade path so that large floats and marching units, like the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band, could not safely travel down the lanes. The floats and marching units would no longer have sufficient side clearance to allow spectators to stand alongside the route safely.
The parade committee immediately began looking at possible alternate routes. The following criteria was used to evaluate the various routes that we investigated:
- We needed sites that would have both acceptable line-up and disbandment areas.
- The streets had to be wide enough to accommodate bands, float, marching units, mounted units, etc.
- The parade route had to include the communities of both Bryan and College Station.
- The route had to have sufficient side streets and solid surface parking to provide spectator parking and access should emergency vehicles be required.
- Acceptable routes needed to have adequate side clearance for safety reasons.
After driving the streets of B/CS and meeting with representatives from both Bryan and College Station, I’m sad to announce that we could not produce a way to meet these criteria and safely hold the parade.
We encourage everyone to attend the Lighted Christmas Parade that is scheduled for Thursday, December 7th at 6 p.m. in Downtown Bryan.
Thanks to everyone in BCS for your support over the years! We couldn’t have done it without YOU!