Brothers Harrison and Mason Spofford drove with their family from Bar Harbor to catch the annual Festival of Lights parade in Bangor Saturday evening and were smiling even before the first float glided by.
Decked out with Santa hats and whirling colored lights, the brothers were among hundreds of people crowding the sidewalk along the parade’s route from Exchange Street winding through downtown to Washington Street.
With around 80 participants in the parade — including marching bands, floats, dancers and other performers — there were enough elves, snowmen, reindeer and dancing lights to fill the downtown streets. There were also plenty of Grinches and even a couple of dueling T-Rexes to round out the event.
Temperatures hovered around 15 degrees in Bangor as the parade kicked off and dropped a few degrees over the hour it took for all the floats to pass by the reviewing stand at West Market Square.
As is tradition, the final float — a wagon pulled by two draft horses — carried Santa Claus. He took a minute to light the downtown holiday tree in West Market Square, officially kicking off the holiday season.
Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Bangor, the theme for this year’s event was “The Magic of Rotary.”