VINTON, Va. – It may sound silly, but a virtual shoebox parade is the board’s creative way to savor the parade tradition and still social distance.
This year would have been the 65th annual Dogwood Festival but due to coronavirus the festival is canceled, but that doesn’t mean the spring tradition has to be.
To keep the tradition alive, the festival is hosting a virtual shoebox parade.
Kids decorate a shoebox and when they’re done, post a picture of the float on the parade’s Facebook event page.
Then this Saturday at 10 a.m. Dogwood Festival will post a slideshow of all the photos to represent a parade.
“We put a lot of time and effort and the community looks forward to it. They get so excited. We wanted to try to do something to at least recognize that dogwood festival is still here we didn’t go away,” said Connie Houff, board president for the festival.
The parade is Saturday but shoebox float photos have to be posted by, Friday, April 24.
While a virtual parade isn’t ideal Houff says there is a silver lining. They get to share the Dogwood Festival parade with people who aren’t usually able to enjoy it.
“We’ve even reached out to people outside of Vinton people who have lived here in the past or have family here and their kids are even wanting to participate. So it’s kind of great we can reach out past the Vinton residents.”
There will be prizes for the best floats.
Houff also mentions some exciting plans are in the works to bring some festival events they weren’t able to have this spring to the Fourth of July celebration.