2016 Florence Christmas Parade Winners
The 2016 Florence Christmas Parade brought the sights and sounds of the holidays to historic downtown Florence and kicked off the holiday season. The parade featured over 100 floats, bands and performance groups as they marched, danced, sang and twirled their way down Court Street to the delight of the spectators. Even Santa was on hand to wave at the crowd and shared some sweet treats.Florence Main Street was responsible for the coordination of this year’s parade. “There’s not much more fun than a parade and the Christmas parade really gets everyone into the holiday spirit!” said Teryl Shields, Executive Director of Florence Main Street. “There’s no better way to get excited about Christmas than seeing all the cute kids and great costumes, hearing the wonderful bands from our community play holiday music and watching the floats go by.”Winners of the parade prizes were Best Band – Florence High School; Best Performance Group – Allegro Dance and Fitness; Best Business Float – Express Oil and Best Non-Profit/Community Organization—Shoals Area Salvation Army. “Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2016 Christmas parade. This parade gets such great interest and support from the community and this year’s bands, floats and performance groups were fantastic” said Molly Austin, Florence Main Street Event Coordinator.Florence Main Street would like to thank Participating Sponsors University Honda and University Nissan for their support which helps make possible the prizes to the Best Band, Business, Non-Profit and Performance groups. A special thank you to Big River Broadcasting for providing the stage, sound and for emceeing this year’s parade. The parade couldn’t happen without the fantastic support of the University of North Alabama ROTC who handles logistics on the night of the parade along with the UNA University Police and the Florence Police Department providing assistance and coordinating a safe and secure environment for the parade. Anyone with questions about the parade can contact Florence Main Street at 256-760-9648.Florence Main Street is a non-profit economic development organization dedicated to working with business owners, community leaders, and residents toward the common goal of revitalizing Downtown Florence, culturally and economically. For more information about us or any of these efforts, please contact Florence Main Street at 256-760-9648 or info@florencemainstreet.org.