It’s no joke — the Absurd April Fool's Parade is back in Longmont for a second year.
Amy Heneghan said one couple, dressed up as dinosaurs, showed up at the debut parade in 2021 relieved that the event was real and not a prank. Hosted by the Left Hand Artist Group, the absurdist occasion has returned this year for a second parade scheduled for Friday.
Heneghan, a Left Hand Artist Group board member and the FUNraising committee head, explained that she got the idea for the event from her sister in California, whose town hosts an April Fool’s Day parade.
“She said, ‘You should do something like that,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know how to do anything like that,’” she said.
With that idea, the Left Hand Artist Group was able to pull together a parade. It saw about 60 participants dressed up in absurd costumes parading down the streets of Longmont.
More than anything, Heneghan explained the event was about giving people permission to smile and laugh.
“It came about really because the last couple years have been so challenging and so hard — absurd in a lot of ways,” she said. “We wanted to celebrate life in a way of just bringing joy and something colorful and vibrant.”
This year’s event will be similar in format and hopefully even bigger, with the Longmont ukulele group expected to participate as well.
“Who shows up and what they bring is anybody’s game,” Heneghan said.
The parade will start at the Senior Center in Roosevelt Park, going south on Pratt Street, east on Sixth Avenue, up Main Street to Longs Peak Avenue and west back to the park. The path intentionally goes out front of two senior living facilities and residents have been invited to enjoy the parade as it goes by.
Last year’s “grab bags of randomness” will return with a variety of funny items for participants. Organizers are still finalizing some of the details, but there will still be plenty of room for people to enjoy the event organically.
Heneghan said that all “well-behaved humans and animals” are welcome, including kids. Last year, dogs, cats and even a cockatoo made it to the parade.
Any sort of noisemaker is also encouraged, whether it’s a kazoo or a tuba. Participants can dress up and also decorate their bikes, trikes, walkers or wagons.
“We have put it out as tell your nannies, tell your grannies, we’re having a hootenanny,” Heneghan said.
Participants should meet at the Senior Center in Roosevelt Park at 5:47 p.m. April 1, and the parade will begin at 6:18 p.m.
