Niagara, ON Grape & Wine Parade

Hello!
It's been a while since we have gotten together, so I don't know how many members will read this.

I received a letter from the Grape & Wine Parade and we have a deadline to sign up. Previously we have been late, and they will not allow any more late entries.

I would like to hear from everyone to see who is SERIOUSLY interested in walking the parade again this year. I really want to hear from YJN members, since we would be hosting this event, but also from other club members who have joined us in the past.

We must enter by August 7th!!! I must know before then what we want to do.

Thanks for your attention to this matter!!

Debby

 

I'll be there.

 

I'll be there

 

I will be there for sure!

 

Remind me of the exact Date? and as Long as I can get the day off from work, then me and my family will be there.

 

We have another event pencilled in for the morning of Sept 29th, so some of the costumers from Rochester may not be able to make it up.

~Doc_Bev

 

I'd love to come up for this, it has always been such a great time in the past.

 

I need to send in the application for this parade event guys.

Is there anyone else from YJN that is interested in this???

 

I would be interested in going also..
Is it Sept. 28/07?

thanks
yodascorch

 

So far I've counted at least 8 between Garrison Excelsior and the Canadian Garrison who have said they would attend if YJN signed up.

~Doc_Bev

 

The parade is the morning of Saturday, September 29th.

~Doc_Bev

 

Debby,

I visited the office today and got the application form, and she said it was fine if I got it in the next couple of days.

If there is minimal YJN interest, I can submit this under Rebel Legion/501st Legion. I don't want to go over the group's heads; I only want to see us all in this again.

 

We get mailed the application every year.
We are just checking on the Mason Hall that it is free for us to use again, and then we will submit the paperwork.

My truck...may NOT be avalible this year. With 250,000km+ on it it is not long to last and I have been looking at replacing it (with a car).
I don't think that will be an issue. Most of the kids that were in the truck last year are lots old enought to walk.

 

*whew* I'm glad to hear they're being lenient and will still allow late submissions.

~Doc_Bev

 

as always I will be there. of course this coming after my vacation to visit the south australian fanforce.

 

Personally speaking I no longer have a useable costume though I would be willing to come out and help with this providing that I do not have to work and that I am not on call that evening either, and also I maybe having a small surgery (Oh the irony...) mid september that may impare my ability to walk the Parade route like I have in previous years, I am getting old folks But I will cross that bridge as I come to it.

 

I went to the Grape & Wine Parade office today to bring in our application for the parade.

Some issues were said to me that must be said to all who want to participate in the parade this year.

After looking at the tape from last years? parade, the parade committee has said a few things that I will list here:
· They are aiming to have the Grape & Wine Parade to be as spectacular as the Macy?s Parade and therefore are stepping up the protocol.
· They want the group to step up the costumes, not to be thrown together at last minute.
· They want the group to be ?tighter? when walking. We often start off in lines when we start off the parade, but as the parade goes on, we start to be more lax in keeping in formation. They want us to be more conscious of that and stay in formation. We also should keep like characters together, for instance, keep all the princesses together.
· The lady said that we are on probation and this is our last chance. We were close to being cut already but they are giving us one more chance to prove ourselves.

If they want the parade to be of ?Macy?s? caliber, then the truck will not be suitable, so therefore it has not been entered in this year?s parade.

Please post your thoughts, but please don?t shoot the messenger.

 

I asked Deb to post the above so that we can get some feedback and opinions.... Here is mine.

I'm insulted and very upset, to be blunt.

There are 2 ways of looking at this...
1) Are they just blowing smoke up every entrants butt?
Makes some sense, in a hope to "step up" every entrant in the parade. I'm sure everyone wants the parade to be better than last years and the G&W people are just trying to "light a fire" under everyone to be bigger and better.

Or

2) We really have been "called out". To me this is a load of poodoo.

We never received an official letter of reprimand for our poor "behavior". The fact that we are told we are "on probation" at the time we apply for our entry is not very professional in my opinion. If they want to be on a level with "Macy's", I think it had better start from within.

I'm insulted at the suggestion that our costumes are under par. Many of us have spent countless hours and money to make the costumes we have, and are proud of what we have done. The thought of excluding one person over another, based on the opinion of the G&W quality of a costume, is wrong and I will not be the one to make that call. It's everyone, or no one?in my opinion.

Regarding the walking and the formation... Many be the parade security should be doing their job. It's kind of hard to "keep-up" when you have fans jumping out into the street slowing us down. It's hard enough to walk in some of the costumes let alone deal with 30 kids all trying to get a "high five" from Vader.

Is there room for improvement? Always. But to put us on ?alleged probation? is wrong and I just don't buy it. For every year since we have been in the parade we (all chapters and 501st/Rebel Legion) have been one of the most popular groups; and I have letters AND AWARDS to prove it.

So my feeling is this...we keep doing what we have been doing...entertaining the fans. Yes, we can try to keep tighter formations, yes we can try to "keep-up". And if we are not up to their (The G&W people) standards of costumes and entertainment...we just wont allow them to accept our entry fee next year.

 

Frankly, I feel the same as Chris as I am very upset by such harsh and unfair critism at our costumes and formation. Honestly, who do they think they are kidding by trying to become more of "Macys day Parade" Are they willing to pour the thousands of dollars that it takes to put on the Macy's day Parade? I do not think so.

Also, into regards to the comments about the quality of our costumes, It needs to be said that not everyone has the resources (Time, money, etc) to pour into making accurate costumes down to the last stich. Its true that some of our memebers do own very impressive costumes which they have worked very hard on, so this buisness is just...really, its unbelieveable.

I think Chris makes a very valid point about our group needing to be "tighter" which is near impossible when we have Kids running onto the street wanting to see some of there favorite characters up close. Also, due to the constriants of costuming not all memebers can move as quickly as they usually can and some will be slower than others.

Personally, I have always enjoyed the Grape and Wine (Till now) becuase its fun, a chance to go out into the community and its a long tiring day, but its always felt worth it and the end, but that has changed for me now with the arrival of this information that we are on "probation" and all that nonsense. Its hard to look at as a community event if they begin to treat groups within that community so poorly.

 

I just flew in from Facebook and boy are my arms tired.

Well, I'm not going to go into the details of how I feel about the Niagara Wine Festival committee treating a group of people who brought a lot of colour and excitement to the parade like a bunch of amateurs while the committee themselves ruin the festival and the parade from within, I am going to say that they have no right to criticize anyone after destroying what was the 8th largest parade in the world. (never mind the former city council's decision to put a lot of business out of commission in Port Dalhousie to build a condo. Let's just say overall I'm not pleased with what's going on in St. Catharines lately.)

Anyway, that said I will be in St. Catharines for the G&W this year (I'm a hypocrite, sue me). I won't be able to march in the parade because I don't have a costume, but if you guys need/want help for before/after the parade to help people get costumes on and off and other things that need an extra hand to help out I'll be there.

 

I'll keep my comments fairly brief.

In defence of the G&W people, yes were have been a bit unruly in years past. As it's been said before, we are not professionals, marching in formation takes practice. We also do get stopped by the kids, but that becomes a decision on what we rather do, interact with the audience or keep to a more military demeanour?

As far as the costumes, I think for the most part all the costumes we've had were decent. Perhaps they are referring to the kids in the truck with less than professional quality? I'm not sure.

Certainly a Jedi costume might come across as less impressive compared to say a Vader, but people who know the films wouldn't see it that way.

With so many people coming in from out of town it will be hard to practice any marching ahead of time. All we can do is impress upon everyone to behave as professional as possible, to think military and not party on types.

If they want Macy's, we'll give them Macy's.

If we fail, well we had fun, and there are a whole load of other parades in the region that will love to have us I'm sure.

 

I am really not sure where this talk of us being "Unruly" during the parade is coming from, though I suppose that also comes from our own defination of the term. Yes, It is true that we do not march in perfectly straight formation as say a marching band would be able to do, yes, its true that this take training.

In my mind, I would consider us being "Unruly" during the parade as everyone just going everywhere doing there own thing and forgetting we are even in the parade, and I do not think have ever acted in such a way, we have always been very "Professional"

Of course there is room for improvement like Chris has said, but I really need to stress that I feel the parade officals are being far too harsh in there critism of us. I think what they would like to see, and what is realistic are two completely different things.

One thing I have always noticed is that the parade officals are fanatical about keeping even spaces between the groups marching in the parade, this is fair. Though to give last year as an example, we were behind a performing group who would at intervals stop, do there little act in the middle of the street holding up the rest of the parade in the process. Then, when they were finished race ahead and boom! Just like that a huge gap is created and that looks bad, but there is nothing we can do about it as I am not about to ask the guy wearing the Darth Vader suit to run to catch up with the rest of the Parade.

I do confess that I have "gotten my back up" about this matter of "Probation and "Last Warnings" (No worries Debbie, I know you are just playing messanger in all this! ) and its really nothing against anyone within the Club but more towards those who are running the parade and what I feel is a complete lack of respect for us and the effort we have put into the parade.every.single.year.

 

I have little to add to what has been said, but Stephanie and I cannot believe how bizarre this new opinion has appeared. I mean, the 501st is included in the groups performance in the parade, and how are their costumes below a standard? I can understand the opinion at hastily made costumes, and to a point the childrens costumes, but I think as a whole our costume appearence has been the best in the past couple years than it has been looking back at some old pictures. (Not intending a slight to any ones old costumes! We have just all gotten better!)

The line thing is understandable, but we all only have two eyes, and I know I am guilty of falling behind sometimes too...however everyone around me is conscous of that too and I to them and we quickly reform up.

I really think, Chris, you and Debbie should go and talk to the heads up about this. Take some pictures with you show them how loved we are and how great we look. Last years photos really show it too!

[image=http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Primrodo/Grape%20And%20Wine%202006/GroupRoto.jpg]

 

As the parade wrangler I take full responsibility for the lines. It is difficult to keep everyone in line when some fall behind and others dont mind falling behind. I try to keep things moving as fast paced as possible. Obviously I am not the final authority but its obvious my efforts to keep people in line were being watched and critiqued. personally I would like more help. But at the same time I would like it if others respected what was asked of them and try to keep up. Its obvious with costumes breaking down its understandable we get behind. trust me fixing the leg armour of a stormtrooper didnt look too good.

In years past putting the imperials up front and the jedi in back seem to get things moving a bit more. Perhaps more planning on our parts could avail us of future problems. The costumes rock. Sorry but they do. Unfortunately, for us they saw the rose bowl parade. That is a downside for us. But we need to make lemons into lemonade. I know we can do it.

Lets wow the crowds and the judges and lets keep rocking.

 

My 2 cents from the bench? take it or leave it.

I know a bunch of you guys and gals and I know you do good stuff for the community and take pride in what you do.

but I personally would not worry about what they have to say.

In my opinion the G&P is doomed.....it's in its last death throws in my opinion. It has steadily gotten worse over the past 3-4 years..from participation in the parade and by the general public. They should not be too choosey to the ones that are attending every year.