Thousands of people gathered on downtown Edmonds streets Sunday to soak in the sights and sounds of a long-standing tradition: The Edmonds Kind of Fourth of July parade sponsored by the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce.

On hiatus in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s parade made up for lost time, featuring more than 90 entries — from dancing horses, to a high-stepping drill team, to two grand marshals.  Former Edmonds Senior Center Director Farrell Fleming was recognized belatedly for his 2020 grand marshal selection, while Rick Steves of Rick Steves Europe — the 2021 grand marshal — stood up in his car throughout the parade, enthusiastically greeting the crowd.

Even the politicians pulled out all the stops for this year‘s event  Edmonds City Council Position 2 candidate Janelle Cass drew attention with jazz musicians and a truck filled with giant paper mache giraffe. Position 2 candidate Will Chen’s entry featured attention-getting lion dancers.

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Greg Urban estimated the crowd along the parade route at between 8,000 and 10, 000 — a little lighter than in past years but still a strong turnout given the last-minute frenzy of parade preparations in the middle of COVID-19 uncertainty.

The winning parade entries by category:

Most Patriotic: Pacific Little League All-Stars

Most Original: Latin Dancing Horses of Washington

Funniest: Keystone Cops

Mayor’s Trophy: North Sound Church

Best Decorated: Edmonds Floretum Garden Club

Chamber Trophy: Salish Sea Brewing

A few notes: My Edmonds News video recorded the parade and will post the link to that as soon as it’s uploaded.

An additional photo gallery will be posted tomorrow including photos submitted by readers.

— By Teresa Wippel