Thousands attend Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Rose Parade and Festival

Bill and Linda Jensen of Hidden Valley Lake danced in the street Saturday to Latin music sounding from one of the many floats in Santa Rosa’s 123rd annual Luther Burbank Rose Parade.

Their daughter, Michelle Halbur, of Santa Rosa, and her 2-year-old son, Rowan, sat on a curb on E Street, just north of Sonoma Avenue where the parade had started at about 10 a.m.

For Rowan, who sat on Halbur’s lap under a wide-brim sun hat, it was both his first Rose Parade and his first lollipop, courtesy of a handout from the Santa Rosa Fire Department.

The Jensens, who moved from Santa Rosa to Lake County about 12 years ago, were in town to relive and revive memories at one of Sonoma County’s most enduring traditions.

“It brings the community together, which is what I like the most - seeing the community, seeing the cultures,” Bill Jensen said.

About 4,000 people participated in the two-hour parade Saturday, with thousands more watching from sidewalks all along the downtown route, which wrapped around a newly reunited Old Courthouse Square, where a festival continued through the afternoon.

“The parade is a celebration of the Sonoma County community,” parade manager Judy Groverman Walker said. “It’s a celebration of our schools, our nonprofits, our businesses, the people that make up our community.”

Mainstay participants included local fire and ?police departments, veterans groups, school marching bands and drum corps. The parade drew 134 entries, including newbies Fit4moms of Santa Rosa and Windsor, and Duchy of Crimson Wood, a medieval and fantasy combat sports and recreation group based in Rohnert Park.

Some organizations, such as the Sons of Italy of America and Snoopy’s Home Ice returned to the parade after sitting out a few years, Groverman Walker said.

The parade and festival, with annual expenses up to $100,000, is a free event put on by a nonprofit organization, with support from city and county funds for advertising and community sponsors, such as Exchange Bank, Trione Vineyard & Winery, The Ratto Group, Sutter Health, Redwood Credit Union, Friedman’s ?Home Improvement and others.

“After 123 years, it has to continue, the community has to be behind it,” Groverman Walker said. “You’ve got to have traditions.”

After the parade, many spectators flocked to the city’s new sun-drenched square, which reopened last month. On the south end of the plaza, a band called Aqua Nett played 1980s glam-rock tunes.

Andy Casarez, 45, sat in a lawn chair on the central lawn and offered his endorsement of both the event and the new urban space. It has given Santa Rosa a “center of activity” that it didn’t have before, he said.

“Having the square open, it’s fantastic,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.