Depending on who you ask, someone like David Esterberg had either the best or the worst job in Monday’s Island Farms Victoria Day Parade.
He was the band member carrying a 30 pound sousaphone over his shoulder, using all his lung capacity to give the instrument its full musical punch while harmonizing with dozens of band mates.
Esterberg, a 16-year-old with the Oregon City High School band, one of the 19 bands featured in Monday’s parade, said when he first started playing the sousaphone a few years ago, he knew he had his work cut out for him.
“My first year of marching it was kind of bad because a lot of the weight goes in your shoulder, but eventually you just get used to it,” Esterberg said, before his band set off on the Douglas Street parade route, which stretched from Mayfair Mall to the Inner Harbour.
“The band also wants you to play really loud and also good, so that takes quite a bit of practice,” he said.
Miriam Miller, who watched the parade with her two kids, five-year-old Adelle and seven-year-old Isabella, said she feels for anyone lugging a tuba on one of the warmest days this year, with temperatures reaching 20C before noon.
“Carrying that all day would be ridiculous,” she said.
At the same time, nine out of 10 parade watchers surveyed (in the most unscientific of surveys) agree the high school bands are the definite showstoppers. They’re right up there with the mascots in terms of eliciting the loudest cheers, which must go a long way in easing the burden of carrying a heavy instrument.
So who has the job that doesn't bask in the same glory as the musicians, mascots and anyone handing out free candy and swag to kids?
Maybe it's not the people sitting atop the floats and waving at the crowd but the people driving them, the people who focus on driving a steady five kilometres an hour while watching out for any kids who might run out onto the parade route.
“The main thing is keeping the distance from the person in front of me but ... you've got to keep an eye on how close you are to the crowds because they have a tendency to want to come in,” said Clarence Johnson, who drove the blue Ogopogo float on behalf of the City of Kelowna in Monday’s parade, his third parade in a row after one in Kelowna on Saturday and one in Nanaimo Sunday.
Johnson and his wife Maria, who are both volunteers, have been in 160 parades in the last 11 years, travelling about 75,000 kilometres across the Pacific Northwest.
“Down in the States, their parades are way bigger, their floats are bigger. They're more into the parade stuff than us in Canada,” Johnson said.
Miller, who brings her family every year, said several years ago she was concerned Victoria-based parade participants weren't really stepping up their game but she said this year all 105 parade entries went all out.
“In the last several years local places didn't really represent that well, we got a little tired and bored. But this year and last year they've really stepped it up and are representing,” Miller said. “Victoria is totally stepping up.”
This reporter thought maybe the last float had it the roughest as parade watchers would be restless and packing up after three hours of sitting on the hard pavement. This theory was proven wrong however as families still waved and cheered as the City of Nanaimo's giant bathtub, promoting the World Championship Bathtub Race, came rolling through.
By 12:30 p.m., streets were reopened and the city’s 119th Victoria Day parade had wrapped up, likely with all 3,000 participants feeling like they had the best job in the parade.
