by Beth Kassab | Jun 17, 2025 | Arts and Culture, Events, News, Uncategorized
Winter Park awaiting decision on Parade of Bands
The annual December tradition was cancelled last year and may not happen again because of the new college football playoff schedule
June 17, 2025
By Gabrielle Russon
Officials are currently deciding the fate of the annual Parade of Bands in Winter Park.
A decision is expected to be reached next month whether the December parade is a go or if it is canceled for the second straight year in a row.
The parade normally features the two university bands playing in Orlando’s Pop-Tarts Bowl.
“Florida Citrus Sports is the entity that determines whether or not they will have an event. Once we hear from them, then the city works with FCS for the Parade of Bands event coordination and logistics,” Winter Park spokeswoman Clarissa Howard said. “They are in discussions right now and will determine if there is a Parade of Bands at the end of July. At this point, we don’t have a confirmation yet”
The recently released bowl schedule shows the Pop Tarts Bowl begins at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 27 at Camping World Stadium.
It is the same kickoff time as last year that forced officials to scratch the parade because of the logistical challenge of transporting hundreds of band members into Winter Park and feeding them before the game and the bands’ other responsibilities.
Blame the new expanded college playoff system for the earlier kickoff times.
City and FCS officials told the Winter Park Voice last year they were disappointed the parade wasn’t happening in 2024 but would try again in 2025 although they warned they couldn’t make any guarantees.
The parade shuts down Park Avenue as crowds line the street to hear the music and watch the mascots and cheerleaders go by. Then the masses gather in Central Park for a drum-off. The event, which is free, draws all ages and has been a tradition since 2007 in Winter Park.
“It has been a crowd-pleaser every year,” Johnny Miller, Winter Park’s special events manager, said at the time.
The marching bands are scheduled to make pregame cameos this year for tailgating at Tinker Field and a pep rally at Pointe Orlando. However, if there’s no parade, that means Winter Park residents miss out on the convenience and the magic of having the festivities right in the heart of their quaint downtown.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
Gabrielle Russon is a freelance reporter and former reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered K-12 education, colleges and universities and the tourism industry. She lives in Orlando with her family and writes about politics, education, theme parks and the courts.
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by Beth Kassab | Dec 17, 2024 | Events, News, Uncategorized
Parade of Bands missing from Winter Park holiday festivities this year
The popular parade along Park Avenue was squeezed out by this season’s earlier bowl game kickoff
Dec. 17, 2024
By Gabrielle Russon
A longtime Winter Park holiday tradition is canceled this year because officials said an earlier kickoff for the Pop-Tarts Bowl on Dec. 28 makes it impossible to hold the Parade of Bands.
“It has been a crowd-pleaser every year. We’re really sorry that it’s not going to be held this year,” said Johnny Miller, Winter Park’s special events manager. “But we will be ready to go next year and hopefully everything will work out with the date.”
So far, Miller has fielded a dozen calls from residents asking about the parade since the event is missing from the city’s holiday calendar. Miller expects the calls to increase as people tune into football and Christmas approaches.
College bands faceoff in Central Park as part of the Parade of Bands. (Photos courtesy of the City of Winter Park)
Since 2007, two school marching bands in town for what’s now known as the Pop-Tarts Bowl at Camping World Stadium have marched down Park Avenue late morning before the game. Little kids sat on the curb and adults brunched outdoors while tubas, drums, mascots and cheerleaders took over the quaint brick street. The parade was up close, personal and loud; the environment was electric.
The finale took place at Central Park, where the two opposing schools competed in a spirited drum-off in a big outdoor pep rally.
“I learned the first year, it’s not a battle,” Miller said. “Bands don’t fight.”
After the performances, the two friendly school bands ate lunch together before heading back on buses to Camping World Stadium. Winter Park city employees served barbecue to nearly 1,000 hungry college students in about 20 minutes, Miller said.
As far as parades go, “It was something different. It was something unique,” said Miller, who appreciates a good marching band as the longtime assistant football coach at Winter Park High School, his other job.
Parades these days are harder to come by. The annual downtown Orlando Citrus Parade was canceled in 2019 after nearly four decades.
The Parade of Bands drew at least 2,000 or more — especially if a Florida team was playing in Orlando.
The Parade of Bands marches down Park Avenue. (Photos courtesy of the city of Winter Park.)
Winter Park resident Marc Hagle, a commercial developer who is currently building a record-setting home in the city at 40,000-square feet on Lake Osceola and who has made headlines with wife, Sharon, for traveling in space, came up with the Parade of Bands’ idea and approached the city, Miller said.
The parade launched in 2007 and has been held annually except for two previously cancelled years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, Iowa State versus Miami in the Pop-Tarts Bowl starts at 3:30 p.m. on the Saturday following Christmas. This season marks the first of an expanded college playoff system, which prompted some earlier bowl kickoffs.
In past years, the bowl’s start time was in the evening on a weekday, leaving enough time to squeeze in a parade and the bands’ lunch in Winter Park.
“The logistics are very tough, even when the game was at like 5:45, almost 6 o’clock,” said Jill Mickle, senior director of external relations at Florida Citrus Sports.
The major networks control the kickoff time, and there just isn’t enough time with the new schedule this year, Mickle said, adding the bands have other game day responsibilities like playing for their alumni tailgates.
“We’re sad,” Mickle said. “It’s not that we didn’t want to have it. It’s just timing-wise, it couldn’t happen this year.”
Will the fan-favorite parade return in 2025?
“I certainly hope so,” Mickle said, although she acknowledges she can’t make any guarantees.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
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by Beth Kassab | Jun 11, 2023 | Events, News
Juneteenth events on tap for the weekend
A series of celebrations to mark the day of emancipation for enslaved people will include a remembrance of the Rosewood massacre
By Beth Kassab
Celebrations of the federal Juneteenth holiday will kick-off in Winter Park on Thursday with the 5th Annual Hannibal Square Community Land Trust Juneteenth Roundtable Discussion on Race, Housing and Health.
The event will take place at the Winter Park Events Center from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Admission is free. To register go to hannibalsquareclt.org/juneteenth-2023.
On Saturday, residents will have multiple events to choose from including a free Father’s Day breakfast and “Remembering Rosewood,” a program curated by Barbara Chandler in partnership with the Hannibal Square Heritage Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Winter Park Community Center & Shady Park. For a full schedule of events and more information click here.
Then on Saturday evening the Equity Council and the city’s Parks & Recreation Department will put on A Night Under the Stars: Jazz & Jubilee at Shady Park from 5 to 10 p.m.
Finally, the Winter Park Library will host multiple programs related to Juneteenth. For a full calendar or to reserve a seat at an event click here.
The federal holiday will be officially observed on Monday, June 19.
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by Beth Kassab | Jun 11, 2023 | City Commission, Events, News
League of Women Voters to host discussion on the affordable housing crisis
Affordable housing is a concern in Winter Park, where officials have discussed transforming the old library into workforce apartments
The Orange County League of Women Voters will host a panel on affordable housing solutions for the region this week as Central Florida continues to see soaring rents and property values that price even middle-class families out of homes in some areas.
“Give Me Shelter: Innovative Solutions to Our Housing Crises” is the latest in the league’s popular “Hot Topics” series and will begin at 11:30 on Wednesday at the Winter Park Events Center. Register here.
Panelists include Terry Prather, senior advisor to Lift Orlando, Ryan Von Weller, chief operating officer for Wendover Housing Partners, and Mitchell Glasser, Housing and Community Development manager for Orange County. Beth Kassab, editor of the Winter Park Voice, will moderate.
“Low wages, a shortage of apartments and rising rents create a perfect storm for workers, their families and others who live on fixed incomes,” reads a description of the event. “What is being done long-term to provide the kind of communities where people can live? The panelists will provide examples of two innovative solutions to housing and how they work with the community and local government.”
This week the Winter Park City Commission will hear from residents at two meetings where the fate of the old library is on the agenda. At least one potential proposal by a local developer calls for the city to trade the library property for the Bank of the Ozarks property, which would allow the old library land to be transformed into, at least in part, workforce housing.
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by Anne Mooney | May 2, 2023 | Events, News
May – Celebrate Historic Preservation Month
by Anne Mooney / May 2, 2023
May is historic preservation month. If your home is historically designated and boasts a plaque, please display your “historic home” yard sign for the month of May – now through May 31.
If you haven’t put your sign out, please do so as soon as you can. If you need a sign, contact Susan Omoto at Casa Feliz susan@casafeliz.us or Sally Flynn at flynnlinks@aol.com and they will arrange to get you one.
For more information regarding the Historic Preservation Board, historic designation and the city’s history, please access cityofwinterpark.org/historicpreservation
Photo of The Batchellor Home courtesy of the Winter Park Library.
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by Anne Mooney | Feb 16, 2023 | Events, News
Todd Weaver to remain in office
Close vote determines resignation wasn’t sufficient
Todd Weaver will remain on the Winter Park City Commission after three of the five commissioners voted to determine an email he sent earlier this month titled “Stepping Down” was not a “legally sufficient” resignation.
The 3-2 vote concluded nearly two weeks of debate over Weaver’s future since the he sent the message to supporters and senior city staff on Feb. 3 only to say days later that he didn’t want to resign after all and asserting in a commission meeting last week that the email was merely an “announcement” rather than a resignation.
A contrite Weaver apologized for the hubbub at a special meeting on Wednesday to decide his fate.
“I apologize for being the cause of this special session,” he said, noting that he was sleep deprived and contending with new work duties outside of City Hall on the morning he sent the letter. “I should have given it a little more time before I hit the send button … it was just a stupidity move on my part.”
At stake was whether Weaver could serve the remainder of his term until 2025 or if the City Commission would appoint someone new to fill the seat until the next general election in 2024. The city attorney said at last week’s meeting that if Weaver’s note was considered an immediate resignation then it was unlikely he could take it back.
Jockeying among interest groups and candidates to fill the post began within hours of Weaver’s email.
An opinion from a labor attorney sought by the city on the matter questioned Weaver’s credibility and concluded his message was a clear resignation.
“In my view, Mr. Weaver’s recent statements appear to be a crude attempt by him to recharacterize the events of him drafting and sending the email,” wrote Benton Wood of law firm Fisher Phillips.
Mayor Phil Anderson and Commissioner Sheila DeCiccio voted in favor of calling Weaver’s action a resignation and pointed to the attorney’s opinion as well as language in Weaver’s letter, including his use of the past tense when talking about his tenure and his signature on the email, which noted his time as a commissioner from 2019-2023, two years before his term is scheduled to end.
“The clear thrust of the communication is to inform residents he’s stepping down,” DeCiccio said.
Commissioners Marty Sullivan, Kris Cruzada and Weaver himself voted to keep Weaver in place and rejected the legal opinion.
Sullivan said Weaver clearly wanted to continue to serve and it was in the best interest of Winter Park residents to have a commissioner elected by the people rather than one appointed by the commission.
Ten residents spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting and were split over whether to keep Weaver, a proponent of more sustainability policies in the city, on the board.
“Have you ever changed your mind about something?” asked resident Pat McDonald, noting that at last week’s commission meeting the people on the dais conceded they wanted to change course on plans for the old library building when they ended an agreement with one developer to solicit new ideas. “Let’s just assume it was a resignation letter. He changed his mind.”
At least one resident noted her “trust is not within Mr. Weaver anymore.”
Cruzada said he found Weaver’s email to be “ambiguous” and assigning meaning to it would be a “slippery slope.”
“When I read the email, it was kind of like reading a book with no ending …,” Cruzada said. “It’s not as crystal clear as I would like it to be … Do I cringe about how we got here? Yes, it’s regrettable. We’re all human. We all err every now and then.”
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