Everything you need to know about Saturday’s Santa Claus Parade

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This article was published 26/11/2015 (3065 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Santa Claus is coming to town Saturday, but this year the jolly old elf and his reindeer are part of the Grey Cup Festival.

That means, you might want to stake out your parade seat on Portage Avenue early.

With as many as 28,000 fans in town from across Canada, it’s a safe bet this parade is going to be packed.

It’s the 106th Santa Claus parade and the 103rd Grey Cup for the Canadian Football League.

“Santa’s very excited about getting into Winnipeg. He’s been here 106 years straight and never missed a year so this year’s he’s glad there’s going to be a great CFL final here and he wishes everyone the best,” said Ron Marks, Santa’s chief helper and the executive director for the Winnipeg Santa Parade.

There are 100 floats, ten more than usual and all of them are related to the Grey Cup.

As soon as the big guy’s out of sight, Grey Cup organizers have invited crowds back to the University of Winnipeg for yet another Grey Cup party. The Nissan Titan Street Festival sparks up its Manitoban Parka Party right after the parade.

Before the parade, CFL cheer teams are hosting an extravganza at U of W’s Duckworth Centre from noon to 2 p.m.

This year Santa Claus gets a fly-by from Canada’s famed air force squadron The Snowbirds.

The iconic squadron of nine red, white and blue jets fly over Parliament Hill every year and over every CFL Grey Cup classic. They’ll kick off the Santa Claus parade with a classic fly-by along Portage Avenue to Main Street and back again to Young Street.

The Snowbirds – the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 431 Air Demonstration Squadron —are based at 15 Wing Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan.

The commissioner of the CFL, Jeffrey Orridge, will lead the parade. He’ll walk the route with grand marshals, Winnipeg superstar sport fan Dancing Gabe and Winnipeg Blue Bomber alumni player Rod Hill.

Behind them, the Grey Cup will follow, elevated prominently on flat bed.

The cheer teams from all nine CFL teams are also in the parade. All told there are 2,000 participants, not counting the 800 volunteers also helping out, along the parade route.

Here’s a handy line-up for the parade:

Santa block parties kick off at 3:30 p.m.; the parade rolls out at 4:30 p.m.

Parking is open on most of the side streets within a couple of blocks of the Portage Avenue. The bulk of it is south of Portage between Young and Fort streets. There are parking spots in north of Portage on Young, Colony, Carlton, Donald, Smith and on Ellice Avenue. Additional parking can be found north of Notre Dame, east of Main Street.

The parade starts at 4:30 p.m. sharp at Young Street and Portage, winds its way through the streets of downtown along Portage Avenue and wraps up on Main Street and William Stephenson Way.

Find info on Winnipeg Transit here.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca