Dancing, Viking sailing and family traditions; Spokane Lilac Festival parade draws thousands despite rain, shortened route
May 16-For more than four decades, Spokane-raised Lori Carrick has sat dutifully at the corner of Stevens Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard to ring in spring.
"I have been coming down here for at least, well my oldest is 41, so it's been at least that many years that I've been setting up right here," Carrick said, adorned head to toe in purple garb.
Carrick's love for the Armed Forces Torchlight Parade goes back further; she grew up attending the parade with her parents. She began staking out the southwest corner of the downtown intersection to enjoy with her own family, and the tradition stuck.
Nowadays, friends and family alike join Carrick at the corner, and are "heavily encouraged" to wear purple, Carrick's daughter-in-law said.
"It's been a family tradition for a long time," Carrick said. "Sometimes, with the weather, we have to resort to sitting in the back of my van. But we're always here."
The 88th iteration of the annual parade brought the Lilac City a pop of color and a cacophony of joyful brass notes on an otherwise dreary Saturday. Thousands of Inland Northwest residents flocked to downtown Spokane to take part in the annual Lilac Festival tradition despite rain, hail and temperatures in the 40s.
Carrick came prepared for the weather, and for potential spot-hawks. She built a roped -off section for her chairs using cans as the bases for the poles to fend off interlopers, arriving early to establish her base.
"5:15 a.m. is when I set up," Carrick said. "People say 'You're crazy for that.' But no, they don't understand."
This year's parade featured Spokane-raised "Saturday Night Live" alumna Julia Sweeney as grand marshal, a glittering pink royal court float emblazoned with the year's theme of "Embrace" and the usual litany of high school marching bands.
2026 Lilac Queen Hayden Bowdish said the honor still feels hard to believe, but she planned to soak up the parade experience. She added she'd been practicing her wave and had it "pretty much perfected."
Bowdish was one of just several royal court members who danced underneath the Washington Street tunnel through Riverfront Park shortly before the parade got underway Saturday. The staging area became an impromptu dance floor for crown-wearing representatives of towns near and far before they climbed aboard their respective floats.
"'Embrace' is all about being your authentic self," Bowdish said. "And that's exactly what I'm going to do."
The parade followed a shorter route than years prior, a move intended to help cut down on costs, as previously reported by The Spokesman-Review. It featured more than 160 organizations, towns and marching bands, including Yakima County's Sunnyside and its royal court.
Sunnyside resident Zane Espinoza, father to the town's second Princess Eliana Espinoza, said the fathers of the royal court members build a new float each year based on the girls' requests. This year, Sunnyside's drivable float appeared to have popped out of the world of the film series "Trolls," complete with 3-foot homemade statues of characters like "Princess Poppy."
The float, the court and Espinoza have been to a few parades in Washington, but none quite as big as the Armed Forces Torchlight Parade. His favorite part is seeing the reactions of kids familiar with the films, or just how many people come out to support, like when the Sunnyside crew went to Wenatchee for the Apple Blossom Stemilt Grand Parade earlier this month.
"It's just amazing the difference when you watch a parade, and when you're in a parade, just how many people there are," Espinoza said.
Among the most unique parade entries was a towering "Viking One," of the Sons of Norway Spokane lodge. Members of the fraternal organization sat in the aptly-named wooden Viking ship depicting a dragon from bow to stern and waved at parade attendees below.
Gary Larsen, a past president of the organization, said the Spokane chapter has existed for 120 years.
"It's just to keep the culture and heritage up," Larsen said.
The ship used to be an old fishing vessel in Alaska, Larsen said, before it was brought to Spokane and fraternal members added the dragon head and tail. It's now used in parades year-round, including the St. Patrick's Day parade and the Hillyard Hi-Jinx Parade.
Carrick said she loves seeing the variety, particularly which towns make the journey for the parade and what floats they enter. When the marching band of her alma mater Lewis and Clark High School goes by each year, she cheers as loud as she can with a playful competitiveness, she said.
The Lilac Festival parade is a Spokane tradition she adores, Carrick said. She plans to be in the same exact spot next year to participate in the revelry all over again, wearing as much purple as she can.
"It's fun, and it brings the community together," Carrick said with a smile.
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