Christmas parade floats sink below 50%, says Downtown St. John's

It's just three weeks before the annual downtown St. John's Christmas parade — and the annual event has hit a rather large snag.

The number of floats in the parade continues to drop, and this year, numbers are down by more than half.

According to the Downtown St. John's website, the parade features approximately 100 entries and 5,000 participants. 

Gaylynne Lambert,marketing and special events coordinator, said she's reaching out to the corporate community to help.

Overall, it's actually driven quite a bit by the non-profit sector that enter most of the floats. And for the most part it ends up being these non-profit groups who really depend upon volunteers.- Gaylynne Lambert

"We have a bustling economy here in St. John's, and the Northeast Avalon area. We have people that could quite easily do this like Kent, like Home Depot, like Rona, they have staff, they have building materials, they have flat-deck trucks. They have everything that it would take to make a spectacular float," she told the St. John's Morning Show.

Volunteers needed

Lambert said the downtown parade is the largest annual event in the province, attracting thousands of spectators.

"It's the kick-off to the Christmas season. And the floats could not only be used in the downtown St. John's parade, but there are other parades around the area too that would certainly benefit," Lambert said. 

"Overall, it's actually driven quite a bit by the non-profit sector that enter most of the floats. And for the most part, it ends up being these non-profit groups who really depend upon volunteers."