Denver’s 40th annual Parade of Lights on Saturday night went off without a hitch despite protesters staging demonstrations nearby.
Spectators didn’t let the protests interrupt their holiday festivities. Instead, they lined the streets downtown and ushered in the holiday season with laughter and clapping.
Nearby, about a dozen protesters gathered in Civic Center park to demonstrate against recent grand jury decisions in New York and Missouri to not issue criminal indictments against police officers in the deaths of unarmed civilians.
But their chants and drumbeats didn’t reach the thousands who came out on a relatively mild night to participate in the annual Parade of Lights, a Denver tradition sponsored by 9News.
This year’s 2-mile downtown parade featured a color guard from the Air Force Academy, local high school marching bands and baton twirlers dressed in red Santa outfits.
Parents snapped selfies on cellphones with their children. Grandparents pulled the young up onto their shoulders and danced jigs. Children smiled and waved as giant floating balloons passed by.
When the countdown ended, signaling the time for parade organizers to switch on the lights to the City and County Building, 5-year-old Analicia hoisted a glowing light stick into the air while perched on the shoulders of her father, Jesus Hernandez.
She pointed to her 3-year-old cousin, Royce, who was on the shoulders of his father, Albert Cordova, and told him to turn on his light stick too.
Their grandfather, Mario Cordova, said it was the children’s first Parade of Lights.
Denver police were out in force during the event in case protesters tried to disrupt the festivities. Some protesters had said on social media before the event that they planned to discreetly infiltrate the crowd and then jump into action during the parade, but the night ended up remaining relatively calm.
Denver police reported that a protester temporarily disrupted the parade at 15th Street and Glenarm Place. The protester was arrested, and the parade continued.
Mackenzie Pepper , 24, and her husband, Zac Neidich, 23, came out to honor the memory of Pepper’s uncle, Thomas Ayers, who died Monday. The two had come from Dallas to care for Ayers, who was battling congestive heart failure. After four months of caring for him, they finally lost him.
“He would have loved all the Christmas cheer here,” said Neidich. “Christmas and socializing, that was his pastime.”
The two brought to the parade their pet Pekingese, which they decked out in a dog coat. The dog, Abigail Freedom Pepper-Neidich, enjoyed the festivities too, with her tail wagging and tongue panting. It was a night befitting a dog who was born on Sept. 11, which prompted the owners to give her the middle name Freedom.
The married couple said they would soon be on their way to Marshall, Ill., where Pepper’s parents live.
“They don’t have any parade like this there,” Pepper said. “This is something to see.”
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747, cosher@denverpost.com or
