Lighted Tractor Parade Rolling Through Centralia This Saturday

The Centralia Downtown Association is organizing its largest Lighted Tractor Parade to date this year, with nearly 100 entries.

“We have several thousand people that descend upon downtown to watch the parade,” said parade organizer Amanda McDougall. “This year, we have 90 entries — everything you can imagine from tractors, lawnmowers, floats being pulled by tractors. We are going to have a lighted beer keg tree, a lighted garbage truck. … People just put so much effort into their floats that it is just a light spectacle and so much fun to watch.”

Her favorite part, McDougall said, is how creative entrants are.

“We require 1,000 lights on a tractor and 2,000 minimum on a float,” McDougall said. “People go to pretty big lengths to put 2,000 lights on a float, sometimes.”

McDougall noted that she grew up in Lewis County and felt the tractor parade would honor the area’s agricultural heritage when it first began.

“I have to pinch myself every time we get rolling,” McDougall said. “It’s just amazing to see what it has become.”

In tune with honoring Lewis County’s agricultural heritage, Coffee Creek Community & Gardens owner and operator Mokey Skinner will serve as grand marshal for the parade.

“She has participated in our local farmers market for years,” McDougall said. “I always enjoy getting to chat with her. Because of the particular tie with tractors, we always try to honor a family or individual that is involved with farming.”

McDougall noted that this is the first year Centralia Downtown Association has turned people away from entering the parade. Typically, people have still been allowed to sign up the day of the event. This year, however, the Lighted Tractor Parade reached its limit well in advance.

“We have never had to cap the parade entrance before,” McDougall said. “We have always had 90 in the back of our head, the last couple of years. We have always been in the low 80s. It kind of snowballed really quickly — we have never had to close it before. … If we get any longer than 90, we are going to run into ourselves.”

During the parade’s first year in 2010, there were 13 entries.

“Nine years ago, a couple of us from Centralia Downtown Association decided we wanted to bring an event to our downtown,” McDougall said. “We wanted to bring an event that was family-friendly, but would bring people to our downtown core. You can drive through downtown and not even know what is going on behind these doors.”

At that point, someone from the association compiled a list of community events that had done well in other towns across the U.S. McDougall said there are several dozen tractor parades that take place across the country.

“I think that when we first started it was very simple and a lot of tractors,” McDougall said. “The time that people put into their floats has definitely increased — a lot of creativity. We are still trying to figure out how to get back to the tractor portions. We love all the entries, but we have drifted a bit over the years. I’m just always amazed at the effort people put in.”

The Lighted Tractor Parade will take place at 6 p.m. on Saturday in downtown Centralia.