The 79th Annual Harvest of Harmony Parade, sponsored by Tom Dinsdale Automotive, will be Saturday.
Nebraska’s largest parade attracts more than 190 entries from a combination of high school bands and floats for a parade competition downtown and a field show competition at Grand Island Senior High School.
This year, the parade has 94 bands participating and 75 float entries. There are 20 pageant contestants and 24 bands competing at the field competition.
Each year, the parade has a specific theme that floats use as a guideline to decorate. After having to cancel the parade in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Harvest of Harmony Committee was dedicated to honoring our local frontline workers with the theme, “We Are All Superheroes!”
Harvest of Harmony festivities begin on Friday evening with the pageant program at College Park. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Families of contestants, friends, business sponsors and interested members of the community are welcome to attend. Participating contestants are high school senior girls selected by their schools. Harvest of Harmony pageant judges will select five finalists, including Miss Harvest of Harmony.
The fun continues Saturday with the 79th annual Harvest of Harmony Parade, which steps off at 8:15 a.m. Attendees will enjoy a variety of floats, bands and pageant candidates throughout the morning. Immediately following the parade is the Harvest of Harmony Field Competition at Grand Island Senior High’s Memorial Stadium. The order of march, stadium schedule and more information about this weekend’s events can be found on the Harvest of Harmony website.
Miss Harvest of Harmony and the float winners will be announced Friday evening. Harvest of Harmony Parade marching band winners will be announced at the field competition once the results are tabulated. Field competition awards will be announced following each class.
For many years, the Harvest of Harmony Parade has been broadcast live by local television stations. This has been a unique and added bonus for participating bands, floats and dignitaries, and for those who prefer to watch from home.
Unfortunately, NTV determined earlier this summer that it will not be able to broadcast the parade this year due to copyright and synchronization laws that have been discovered in recent months.
The Harvest of Harmony committee will continue to explore other options that allow individuals from across the state, country and world to view the parade “live” for future parades.
Harvest of Harmony’s roots go back to 1938 when Grand Island Chamber of Commerce members decided to organize an event to promote goodwill among the area small towns. That first parade was a rousing success with eight bands and 13 floats in a parade that was estimated to having 10,000 people watching from the streets.
Just as Harvest of Harmony was getting off the ground, World War II began and ceased the parade for a few years in 1942, due to gas rationing. Once the war ended, Harvest of Harmony resumed in 1946 and added the ever-popular pageant. During the years, Harvest of Harmony has grown into one of Nebraska’s largest marching band competitions.
