Daunted by forecasts for bitter cold this weekend, organizers of the St. Paul Winter Carnival decided today to shorten Saturday’s Torchlight Parade and may scrap it altogether.
If the projected wind chill factor dips to 20 below for Saturday, the parade could be canceled, said Kate Kelly, CEO and president of the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation.
Kelly said her organization, which produces the carnival, expects to make a decision by noon Friday.
The evening downtown parade route was originally going to be seven blocks long, but Kelly made the call Thursday to condense it to three to five blocks. Five of the 102 marching units have already pulled out due to cold weather.
“We need to think of safety first,” Kelly said. “The bands are worried about instruments. We encourage (the musicians) to get on the buses and play out the window or just wave. We just want to keep them safe.”
In 1996, that’s the scene that awaited parade-goers as the University of Minnesota Alumni Band played from the bus in minus-21 temperature. That year, the parade was shortened and a third of the expected 75 parade entries canceled. Also that year, organizers called off the dogsled races and postponed several other events.
Planners had not drawn a new parade route as of late Thursday afternoon. Weather reports predict a high of zero degrees and a low of minus-11 for Saturday.
Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press.