The 73rd annual Kirkwood Parade will be held on Monday, July 4, promptly at about 5 p.m.
The Kirkwood Fourth of July Parade, aka the grandmother of all neighborhood parades in Greensboro, began in 1949 when a bunch of World War II veterans and their families decided to celebrate Independence Day by marching around the neighborhood banging on pots and pans, and it has been a delightfully disorganized event ever since.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, when everything imaginable was cancelled, the Kirkwood Parade was held, but with much sparser attendance than usual and, for once, more cars and homemade floats than kids on bicycles.
One Kirkwood resident said that the parade wasn’t cancelled because there was no one to cancel it.
This year, with far less concern about COVID, it is anticipated that kids on bicycles decorated with red, white and blue will once again dominate the parade. It is also expected that throwing out candy and bottled water will again take precedence over throwing out bottles of hand sanitizer.
Some years the Kirkwood Parade attracts a good many politicians. The late 6th District Congressman Howard Coble was a regular for decades and former 6th District Congressman Mark Walker and 13th District Congressman Ted Budd continued the tradition.
With the City Council election coming up on July 26, there is a good chance that a number of council candidates will be making their way along the parade route.
The Kirkwood Parade begins under the giant American flag flying over Independence Drive between Princess Ann Street and Delaware Avenue. It continues east on Independence to Colonial Avenue and then turns left and follows Colonial back to Princess Ann, although not everyone that starts the parade makes the full route. There is no penalty for dropping out early.
The largest crowds are usually around the intersection of Lafayette Avenue and Independence.
