Jan. 3, 2002 – A cool breeze, warm sunshine and blue skies set the scene in Christiansted Friday for the 50th Anniversary Crucian Christmas Festival Children's Parade.
Crowds lined King Street to cast their eyes on the train of beauty queens, dancing troupes, majorettes and steel pan bands that made their way through town. And while onlookers' reviews of the parade were mixed, most agreed that this year's festival has been an impressive one.
"As the festival winds down, it's amazing how many people have been showing up to each event," Miss St. Croix, Alexandrya Evans, 17, said. "It's been relatively safe and incident free."
She said the most memorable aspect of this year's parade is that all the schools participated in record numbers with elaborate costumes, dances and music. "They've been putting forth everything they have," Evans said.
Candice Rhymer and her daughter, Ch-niesha, 5, watched the floats drift by. "It's a bigger turnout this year," Rhymer said. "This will be more memorable to me because it's the 50th anniversary and so many people participated."
Camille "King Derby" Macedon said he thought the parade could have been better. "It's going well, but there could've been more of an emphasis on music."
The parade began shortly after its scheduled time at 11 a.m. It ran fairly smoothly, with only a few gaps between the 36 entrants.
"It's so exciting," St. Croix Majorette Eliana Schuster, 15, said.
"Everybody wants to participate in the anniversary parade and there's been a really good turnout. Everybody is happy to do it."
Schuster said having a parade specifically for the children is important.
"If the children participated in the Adults' Parade, all of the attention would be drawn away from them," she said.
"We need a parade to let the children have an avenue for expressing themselves."
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