Motorcycle daredevils. Eye-popping floats. Mexican dancers. Fire engines and police cars. And lots of smiling faces, everywhere you looked.
Southwest Florida’s biggest event, the Edison Festival of Light Grand Parade, returned Saturday, Feb. 21, to downtown Fort Myers.
Spectators packed Cleveland Avenue and downtown’s streets to see the 88th-annual parade, including about 15 high-school marching bands and 60 floats — all illuminating the Fort Myers night with police and fire engine emergency lights, glow sticks, Christmas lights and anything else that glowed or shined.
Edison Parade photos: Fun times in Fort Myers and a fireworks finale!
The Edison Fest grand parade, a Fort Myers tradition
The annual event is one of the biggest night parades in the Southeastern United States — and also the biggest and longest-running parade in Southwest Florida.
The parade is part of the annual Edison Festival of Light, a two-week celebration that began in February 1938 to honor Fort Myers’ most famous winter resident, Thomas Edison. The festival also includes hymn sings, concerts, parades and car shows.
Saturday’s parade started at Fort Myers High School and traveled north on Cleveland Avenue before winding through the streets of downtown Fort Myers.
Edison Parade photos: Bands, floats and more!
Highlights this year included the popular Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Motorcycle Drill Team, which delighted the crowd with its bike tricks on Harley-Davidson motorcycles; the elaborately costumed dancers of the Mexican dance group Bailes Folkloricos y Danzas de México (which loosely translates to Folk Dances and Mexican Dances); world-champion boxer Tiara Brown (this year’s honorary grand marshal); and recently retired Fort Myers High football coach Sam Sirianni Jr. (this year’s grand marshal).
Edison Parade photos: A unique community celebration
Edison 5K: Runners, walkers bask in February sunlight
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Charles Runnells covers arts and entertainment for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 or email crunnells@usatodayco.com. Follow or message him on social media: Facebook(@charles.runnells.7), Instagram (@crunnells1) and X (@CharlesRunnells)
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Edison parade photos: See the floats, marching bands, kids and more
Reporting by Charles Runnells, Jonah Hinebaugh, Andrew West and Ricardo Rolón, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
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