Recreational Programming Professor Luther Page | 1
Nakemm Evans
Saturday, November 29
Line up at 3:30|Parade starts at 5:30 – 6:30 PM
Seward Street, 1st to 14th| Seward, NE
4th Annual Christmas Parade of Lights
My experience analysis is over the Parade of Light. The Parade of Lights was a fun and interacted parade. It’s an annual Christmas parade that the town of Seward has every year. The enter day is full fun activity’s for the whole family thought out the day. I did not attend any of the day activities, but just to list a few fun activity’s that took place are horse rides around town, arts and crafts show and some of the local business had some stuff going on as well. Also, Santa was in his house on the courthouse square after the Parade was over. Santa was also circling the town in a helicopter before the parade that day.
The Parade started about 5:30 PM and I saw most of the floats the were featured in the Parade which included such entries as lighted garbage and cement trucks, lighted farm equipment, lighted floats, and of course, the newly acquired Star City parade floats. Which were pretty cool to watch. They couldn’t have picked a better night to host it on. It was in its mid-60s that day, which was beautiful. The Parade was well timed in a since where it wasn’t too long or too short, so you didn’t feel rushed or board watching the parade. They had a lot of thing going on to keep the younger kids engaged with what was going on as well.
FRAME (Encounter) / ACTION(S) / EMOTIONAL IMPACTTravel to Parade of Lights / Walked with mygirlfriend from my house to town square—10 minutes. / Enjoyed walking and talking with her.
Admission Financial Exchange / Admission was free / We love FREE stuff
Food / We had coffee and soup / It’s our favorite thing to drink
Meet Friends at the Parade / We sat next to them on the side of the street / Were shocked to see them there and became happy to see them.
Watched the Parade of Lights / We sat and watch floats go by. / The group of use were excited to see all the cool floats.
Planning / We didn’t really plan to do something but go to the parade so we played it by ear. / We always play it by ear its easier and funnier.
End of Parade of Lights / We decided to go see Santa / We saw Santa but the line was way too long to wait. It was also getting a little cold out.
Walk Home / After Santa was too long got another coffee / Feeling good that we went to the Parade of Lights it was cool, we talked about going to more.
Analysis of artistic factors
The parade of lights was a well put together parade in Seward. Something I might add to the parade of light that would have made it probably the best one I have attend. If the city of Sewardwould have had a place where you can get hot coco while we were stand and sitting on the side of the road. I mean even though they had a coffee shop on the square downtown Seward. I think it would have set it over the top if they had something like coffee and even like an area where you are able to eat. I know cafe on the square is open till 9 PM, but I think it’s a little pricey to buy a cup of coffee or hot coco.
Analysis of technical factors
The parade of lights did have some areas where it could have been better like anything else. I think they can be fixed as well. At the begin of the parade there was a lot of down time, what I mean is yes the parade started at 5:30 but for some of the people why down the street they didn’t get see the parade till about 6:00. So I think to better solve that is to have internment for the parade to keep the parents and kids entered.
Another problem I saw while I was watching the parade, was the spacing of the floats. They were to close together, so it went fast it was clustered. If they would space them out a little more It would of gave time to really focus on one flout at a time. I think I just took away from how good some of the flouts look. You would look at one and then the next one would be right behind that one, you really couldn’t savor the moment.
The social structure of the experience
The social organization of participation, well it felt like everyone came together as a community and enjoyed it. Form what I saw, the parade of light was to insure a social bond with the town of Seward NE, Seward is all about bring the community together . If you come here on the 4th of July you will be amazed how this little town of 2,000 or so turns into a town of 5,000 people having fun. For their 4th of July celebration, so yes the community of Seward is all about making a social bond as well as making new friends in the proses.
The parade of light where to entertain the community, but you did have an opportunity to sing with other around you. There wasn’t much for us to interact with the parade. But without the community the parade wouldn’t be what it was. People around me didn’t seem to be bother by the fact they couldn’t be in the parade. They expected to be entertain rather than interact and help entertain other.
The critical frames and traditions
Frame 1
Walking to the Parade took us about 5min.
Frame 2
Finding a spot to sit/stand.
Frame 3
As we were looking we found our friends sitting so we sat by them.
Frame 4
We were getting kind of hungry so we went to look for food.
Frame 5
We found some food at the café on the square
Frame 6
Came back to our sport to watch the parade.
Frame 7
The parade started and the music started to play people started to get loud
Frame 8
Saw the flouts go by lots of cool one as well
Frame 9
Parade was over started to leave, lots of people around.
Frame 10
Good thing we didn’t drive it was crazy to get even one let alone drive
End of Parade
Frame 1 - Day Activity’s T1Frame 2 – Parade T2Frame3
X1 PeopleY1PeoplePeople
X2PhysicalY2PhysicalPhysical
Setting Setting Setting
Leisure objectsLeisure ObjectsLeisure Objects
X3StructuresY3StructuresStructures
X4RelationshipsY4RelationshipsRelationships
AnimationAnimationAnimation
From my point of view of the experience I experienced, I can develop and design the Parade of lights. The parade Started of slow but organized, I saw a lot of direction being said to the people in the parade, to make sure they are doing what they need to be doing. Once the parade begin, It started off very well they had everyone in place and they had people on the street directing the flouts and people who were in the parade as well. As the parade continued they had some people out of order and line, but were soon put back into place to finish out the parade.
The parade of light lasted only about an hour and half, but who ever put the parade together did an awesome job. Mid way thought the parade keep people attention with the music they were playing and the interaction of the people in the parade. They keep a smile on every kids face. The amount of people that showed up was a plus, the atmosphere was great. The people were louse and excited to see everything Seward had to offer in the parade of lights.