We Love a Parade!

Hudson loves parades. As evidence, there are two happening in Hudson this Saturday, May 8.

In the early afternoon on Saturday, the Mad Hatters' Parade, which made its debut in 2019, returns to Hudson. 

Photo: Paul Abitabile|Hudson Area Library

The parade of local folk, marvelously masked and dressed in wearable art, steps off at 2 p.m. from in front of the Hudson Area Library at 51 North Fifth Street. From there the parade proceeds to Warren Street and then continues to Third Street, where it turns right and heads for Columbia Street. It proceeds west on Columbia Street to Front Street and follows Front Street all the way to Basilica Hudson, where it ends with a Grand Riverside Sashay.

There is still time to be part of the fun. Bring your "mad hats, puppets, and homemade instruments and assemblages in any form" to the library gates to line up by 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, or join the parade at any point along the way. For more information, go to www.madhattersparade.org. 

In the late afternoon, there is a parade of more serious intent: the John Lewis Voting Rights Motorcade.

A local motorcade supporting voting rights drives through Hudson on Saturday afternoon. As part of a national event, the John Lewis Voting Rights "Votercade" brings Columbia County residents together to bring attention to the  efforts to curb the right to vote and to call for passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The announcement for the event explains:

The Brennan Center for Justice reports that 361 bills and provisions to make it harder to vote, five of which have already become law, have been introduced in 47 states since the end of the 2020 election. . . . The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is the first step in combating the sweeping voter suppression laws being proposed and passed across the country that disproportionally prevent minorities, the elderly and the youth from voting.

The votercade will assemble in the parking lot at 325 Columbia Street (Columbia County Department of Health) at 3:30 p.m. Participants are encouraged to decorate their cars, bring signs in support of voting rights and ending voter suppression. The votercade will kick off at 4:00 p.m., traveling west on Columbia Street to Front Street, then south on Front Street to Warren Street, and then up Warren Street to Seventh Street Park. For more information and to register to be part of the votercade, click here.

For more information about the National John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Action Day, visit johnlewisdayofaction.org. To learn more about voter suppression efforts, visit votingrightsalliance.org.