VIDEO: Winter Festival Parade 2024 Highlights

WARWICK, RI — While it’s only the second Apponaug Winter Festival Parade, families and marchers alike settled into the Apponaug Village family block party and parade as if they’ve been organizing and celebrating the festival for years.

Chilly weather caught few by surprise despite the relatively balmy reception the inaugural Apponaug Rolling Strolling Winter Festival enjoyed. Hats, blankets and scarves were put into use, and hot drinks were dispensed along with food from the food trucks that have become a staple of local events since before the pandemic.

You wouldn’t know it by the enthusiastic attendance and the well organized music, food, events and parade, but It’s just the second Apponaug Winter Festival, which  Picozzi and the Warwick Tourism department launched in 2023.

Winter Festival Parade 2024 Lineup, Finale

The Mayor, elementary school students, sports teams and dance teams joined the Winter Festival Parade again this year, marching alongside Warwick Police and Warwick Firefighters, clowns, Yuletide witches, the Providence Mounted Police and many others, the procession capped by a WFD ladder truck bearing Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, waving to the crowd on their way to the truck’s parking spot in front of the front lawn at Warwick Central Baptist Church.

From there, the duo rode the ladder bucket to the lawn, and were esorted safely to the ground by Warwick Firefighters. The pair shook hands with children and parents for a few minutes before heading nto the Central RI Chamber building for photos with families as the festival wound down af the end of Winter Festival Parade.