There Will Be a Victoria Livestock Show Parade

The Victoria Livestock Show parade is back on for Feb. 22. Last week, livestock show officials announced the parade was canceled because of low participation numbers, shortage of man hours and limited funds to rent barricades to block side streets along the parade route. Show officials announced Wednesday that they decided to have the parade after receiving a public outpouring of support for the parade.

Members of the community came forward asking how they could help keep the parade a part of the Victoria Livestock Show, Robin Janecka, advertising/marketing chairwoman for the show, told the Victoria Advocate. "It's great that so many people stepped up and wanted to help," Janecka said.

The barricade issue came up when the city's parks and recreation department decided to enforce a long-standing policy to use city barricades only for city events such as Bootfest, street dances, Market Days and the holiday parade. The livestock show officials determined they would need to rent 56 barricades for the parade route and did not have the money budgeted for the rental expense and did not have the help to set up and take down the barricades.

Now that the volunteers and barricades for the parade are covered, Janecka said all that is left is parade participation. "Hopefully, we'll get participation and entries from the community," Janecka said. Nicholas Rodriguez, parade chairman, said entries will be accepted until Feb. 18.

The downtown parade, which will begin at 10 a.m., will follow its usual route. Line-up will begin at 8 a.m. on Main Street at Goodwin Avenue. The parade travels down Main to Church Street, down Church and then up Bridge Street. It will end at Goodwin and Bridge, according to the stock show's website.