Laguna Beach Patriots Day Parade pushes back date

Parade enthusiasts will have to mark new dates on their calendars, as the Laguna Beach Patriots Day Parade has been pushed back a week for the foreseeable future.

The Patriots Day Parade had run annually on the first Saturday in March since its inception in 1967, but organizers sought to change the date of the event after it was rained out this year. The parade has experienced four rainouts in its history.

Following unanimous approval of the City Council, the parade will now be scheduled to take place on the second Saturday of the month. That places the next processional on March 8, 2025, with the next two occurring on March 14, 2026, and March 13, 2027.

“We would have loved to push it to the third week in March, but there’s just no way with the school district schedule,” said Ed Hanke, the president of the parade. “We can only push it a week, so hopefully a week makes a difference.”

The Laguna Beach Unified School District parking lot and the high school stadium serve as staging areas for the parade.

The Laguna Beach Trophy Invitational, a track and field meet hosted by the high school, also factors into the available dates.

Parade officials noted that with the new dates in place, the local event would no longer have to face competition from the Festival of Whales Parade in Dana Point, which also typically occurs the first weekend in March.

Avoiding two parades happening in neighboring coastal cities on the same weekend would increase the possibility of securing mutual aid law enforcement for the event, city officials said in a staff report.

Organizers have had to call off three of the past six parades. Rain resulted in the cancellation of the parade in 2019 and 2024. The coronavirus pandemic sidelined the event in 2021.

A rain-out this year means the honorees will largely carry over to the next parade. The current honorees include Karyn Philippsen as the Citizen of the Year, Rick Shoemaker as Grand Marshal, Mike Tauber as Artist of the Year, Col. Richard Seitz as the Honored Patriot, and Brayden Belden as the Athlete of the Year.

The parade had 75 entries this year, but bands and equestrians made the decision to pull out of the march with rain in the forecast. Protection of equipment and bus fees to travel to a parade that was in doubt were among the considerations.

“Probably about a week before the parade, we started having bands canceling because they saw the predictions of rain,” Hanke said. “We have some bands that are coming from Barstow, Lancaster, Palmdale, and if there’s a chance of rain, they don’t want their instruments to get wet, so they were starting to cancel.”