For a few glorious years, Central Floridians flocked to the “Parade for People Who Would Not be Permitted in Any Other Parade.” by Whitney Broadaway, from the Spring 2018 edition of Reflections magazine In December 1985, Bob Morris began working as a columnist at the Orlando Sentinel. His first assignment was the Citrus Bowl Parade. On Jan. 17, 1986, Morris wrote a follow-up to his first article, insisting that Orlando needed a counter-parade. According to Morris, the Citrus Bowl Parade had become geared toward television and corporate sponsors and no longer reflected the community. Orlando needed to put out a personal ad, Morris wrote: “Attractive, well-endowed city desperately seeking a good time. Prospective suitors must possess a spirit of foolishness, an appreciation of the absurd and the guts to go against the forces of stodginess and convention.” Morris cited the example of Glenn Terry in Miami, who had created a counter-Orange Bowl parade called the King Mango Strut. Even Tampa had recently debuted the Momma Guava Stumble. So why not the Queen Kumquat Sashay for Orlando? Lighting Up Downtown Orlando was abuzz with the idea, and Elizabeth Kurz, an aide to Mayor Bill Frederick, saw the potential of such a parade to help solve one of the city’s problems: getting more people to downtown Orlando at night. Kurz wanted to run with Morris’ “crazy” idea and suggested the Sashay lead straight into the city’s annual “Light Up Orlando” street party downtown. After a few more columns assuring the public that the Sashay was something that might actually happen, the first planning meeting was held at the Beacham Theatre as an informal brainstorming session with friends of Morris’ and local leaders. In his column on Oct. 3, 1986, Morris announced that the parade would kick off Light Up Orlando, and would start at “4:41 p.m. in honor of U.S. Highway 441, everyone’s favorite local road, otherwise known as Orange Blossom Trail.” When the big day arrived – Nov. 8, 1986 – Morris prepared himself for an empty downtown, only to be shocked by a 30,000-person turnout. The Queen Kumquat Sashay was an instant hit and became a staple of downtown Orlando’s November until the mid-1990s. In fact, that fantastic turnout became one of the most difficult things about planning the parade. The Sentinel would cover the bill for arranging police protection, and every year the Orlando Police Department liaison would ask Morris how many people he expected to attend. And every year Morris would say, “This might be a slow year, maybe a couple thousand.” “A couple thousand!” the liaison would exclaim, “Bob, you had more than 40,000 people there last year!” Over the years, the crowd at the Sashay was often larger than the actual Citrus Bowl Parade. Captain Eola and Flying Kumquats The Sashay was a tribute to all things ridiculous, and the only restrictions about walking in the parade were that you had to have a banner of some sort to identify your group and you couldn’t promote any business or product. You also couldn’t operate a motorized vehicle in the parade . . . unless you were funny … Continue reading The Queen Kumquat Sashay