The organizers had no idea whatsoever how it was going to turn out.
But 35 festivals later, fans of the W.C. Handy Blues & Barbecue Festival’s Street Strut Parade are still decorating umbrellas, donning wacky costumes or colorful clothing and showing up for a short “parade” in downtown Henderson on festival Saturday morning.
As the years have proven and as it turned out, once started it has been a tradition that’s hard to let go of. .
The Street Strut Parade has never been a huge parade. Some years temperatures have been sweltering, even at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. It’s also bounced around between different days of the festival to find the right spot and best logistics.
But the people who participate have a ton of fun and get excited by parade prep, and participation has made so many, many memories for families.
And that’s probably why some loyal and enthusiastic fans who have experienced it for years wanted to keep it going when a few years ago the parade seemed to have run its course as a festival event for some sponsoring organizations.
But let’s go back in the time machine for a minute for a bit more on how it took hold in the first place.
The year before the festival started here, Tourism Director Marcia Eblen and Downtown Henderson Project Director Julie Turnipseed traveled to Florence, Ala., on a scouting mission.
With the idea brewing of starting a festival here to celebrate our connection with W.C. Handy, they went to the Florence festival to gather ideas.
Music was the obvious foundation for a festival, and they looked at all the ways and venues that Florence presented the Blues.
But on the Saturday morning of the festival they saw something quirky on the schedule: A people’s parade called the Street Strut.
Think of it as a cousin of a New Orleans Second Line parade with exuberant free-form street dance behind a Main Line brass band.
Marcia and Julie were charmed by what they saw, as excited parade participants and parade goers showed up to strut their stuff and vie for the honor of leading the next year’s parade.
They decided this idea was worth adopting, and for the very first Handy festival the duo worked hard prior to a planned Street Strut People’s Parade to educate people about their vision for what it would look like.
They offered umbrella decorating workshops and strutting demonstrations at kids’ summer camp events, the YMCA, the Housing Authority, the Henderson County Public Library and anywhere they could think of that might help people prepare.
And, finally, the time arrived for the first Handy Street Strut Parade with Julie’s organization, the Downtown Henderson Project, as the presenter.
She has this memory of it:
“As we started the very first Street Strut Parade from Central Park, the jazz band was playing, the umbrellas were up and everyone was in full swing.
I looked back to make sure we had everyone safe and in front of of the police car. There appeared to be a lady in a dress in heels, gloves and a hat running to catch the parade.
I was mortified she was going to fall, so I sent the golf cart (support escort) to pick her up. Come to find out it was Bill Branaman.”
The late local attorney and his wife Marty became very enthusiastic supporters of the Handy Festival and the Street Strut in particular. Branaman was named the first Grande Ooh-Pee-Doo (the parade grand marshal) and he held the title for a few festivals before his death. Eventually the parade would be officially named the William Branaman Street Strut Parade.
For the past few years, a group of friends and retired educators have organized the Street Strut, which takes place on Saturday morning before the final day of Handy music.
They call themselves The Periodic Table Dancers, which was originally their trivia team name.
Tiffany Sights had been in a conversation with someone at the Chamber of Commerce when the possible phasing out of the event was mentioned. She blurted out: “We can’t let that happen. It’s such a dear thing. It’s something that’s so unique.”
The next thing that happened was that she talked her fellow trivia team members about organizing it that year.
One of their members, Sam McVicar, had never missed the Street Strut, and had first-hand information since she herself had been Grande Ooh-Poo-Dee along with other family members.
Another friend in the group, Paige O’Nan Peterson, had also been Ooh-Pee-Doo.
“We had people with the time to work on it and with connections to the event,” Tiffany said. “I had never strutted, but I said ‘we can’t let that tradition die.’”
They decided to take it on.
“It was a real learning curve that first year,” Tiffany said, but they worked hard to promote it, tried to target families with young, contacted Branaman family members to invite their participation and lined up the Soul in the Pocket band, which has become a regular for the parade.
Every time they asked someone to help the answer was “absolutely.” They plugged into their Henderson County Schools network and pulled in Dance Team members for mini Strut lessons.
“We have our faithful participants every year,” she said, so they knew that had a base to work from.
They offer an umbrella decoration workshop on the morning of the Strut and offer a light breakfast with Dixieland music is playing to set the mood. They award prizes in several categories.
“We’re down there bright and early and have the Grande Ooh-Pee-Doo chair decorated and ready to go,” Tiffany said.
The first year The Periodic Table Dancers were in charge a young couple from St. Louis who had just come for the music got into the spirit of the moment and spontaneously came up with costumes for parade.
They were selected co-Grande Ooh-Pee-Doos.
The next year, they returned to Henderson for the Handy Festival to lead the parade.
“That’s the beauty of it,” Tiffany said. “It always turns out to be such a fun event. There’s an excitement to it and it’s different from a lot of activities that take place in Henderson.
“It’s more work than people realize, but it’s so worth it,” she added.
If you go:
This year’s William Branaman Street Strut Parade takes place at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 20. Meet on Water Street next to Audubon Mill Park. Dress in your best New Orleans jazz attire and be ready to strut your stuff.
Free Breakfast and Handy Fest Creation Station/Street Strut Workshop runs from 8 a.m.-9:30 a.m.
