Large crowds are expected. Many will be from outside the Bountiful area. Please wear your ‘polite shoes’ and be as courteous and helpful as possible. This celebration should bring out the best in all of us.
Bountiful City allows chair placement and reserving of parade viewing locations only after 7:00 AM on the day of the parade.
4 Comments
Comment by Dave — July 20, 2012 @ 7:04 am
So much for the rules. I drove down Main Street this morning at 6:30 a.m. and the place was packed with chairs, ropes and overnight campers. Please don’t make rules if you are not going to enforce them. It only hurts the law abiding citizens of Bountiful.
Comment by admin — July 20, 2012 @ 7:41 am
Dave, I saw the same thing. Unfortunately, Handcart Days is only passing along the message here from the city. You might take up your issue with the city and/or police department.
Comment by JW — July 20, 2012 @ 7:58 am
FWIW, My wife went down there to “stake our claim” early this morning. She stood with the rest of the people in that area, but the police did NOT let them set up the chairs etc. until 7am. But….there were sure a lot of people camping and playing and having a great time.
Comment by Tiffany — July 21, 2012 @ 10:12 am
First, let me say thank you to all of you who worked so hard to make this possible. I cannot imagine the countless hours into making the parade a success, so thank you.
I was a little disheartened, but I only mention this in the hopes that maybe changes could be made in the future.
I did not want to camp out because, when the signs say not before 7, that’s what I do. But when I went to check things out at 9pm on Thursday to find the mob of people and chairs, and the entire first row on the tabernacle lawn was roped off (I learned later that evening from the police that private property WAS permissible (ie. sidewalks along store fronts, church lawns, etc.), I didn’t see any choice but to sit and wait there overnight in the hopes of getting a spot for our family. Apparently there are a lot of people proficient in bountiful law who studied up prior to the parade to know what was okay and what wasn’t. I have to say, I was impressed
So for me, the first problem was the ambiguity of what was okay and what was not. People trying to keep the rules were the ones who lost out. Not to mention the hundreds of people not from Bountiful that were not aware that setting out chairs was not allowed that came back on Friday to find their chairs had been impounded. There were signs everywhere, so I guess some of the responsibility lies with those individuals, but it was still sad, because a lot of the chairs belonged to the elderly who were just trying to not have to fight the crowds as much. I am sure they may have seen the signs, but when you see other chairs within feet of those signs and the police not taking issue with them, it would be confusing to say the least. We spoke with more than one officer who agreed and encouraged us to go to the city council to get the rules changed.
But, one other thing I have to say, is that all of the Bountiful City volunteers and especially the police were so courteous and kind to those of us who were staying. They did everything they could to make it a good experience, and for that I was very grateful.
I was glad to see so many people wanting to see the parade, but I feel like if it is going to be promoted to the state (and several surrounding states I might add…I know of people from as far away as Montana that make the trek down JUST for the parade), I wish efforts could have been made to extend the route to accommodate the extra visitors. This parade is already highly popular and crowded, so the added publicity, although I think warranted, just pushed us out of our seams. I think that extending the route would have enabled the extra 50,000+ people that came to see these fine young men could have enjoyed the experience more.
That being said, even though we couldn’t see much in spite of camping overnight, I was SO glad I was there as it was an incredible sight. I was able to watch the march on youtube, and it just warmed my heart to know that I was there. I am very grateful for the hard work of so many who made it possible. It’s something I will never forget.
PS…I am going to send this in a similar form to the Bountiful Council. I hope you don’t read this as a complaint, but rather added information to hopefully help to continue to improve this wonderful celebration.
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