A Toledo tradition entered into its 51st year this weekend.
The very popular, and a little bit peculiar, Old West End Festival King Wamba Parade galloped, danced, and rolled through the historic neighborhood Saturday morning to usher in the summer season with all the majesty of a platypus.
“It's just weird,” Jon Kuhlman, the festival parade co-chairman, said about what makes the weekend endeavor stand out amongst other seasonal offerings. “I think you have to be a little eclectic to live in this neighborhood, and this parade is a good reflection of that.”
Close to the front of the parade line, which began at the intersection of Robinwood Avenue and Collins Street, were the two esteemed guests of the Old West End Festival, King Wamba and Queen Sancha, riding upon a giant pink flamingo float.
With vaudevillian theatricality, the royal couple and their court were carried through the streets, all named after different woods, until they arrived at the steps of the Toledo Museum of Art, where Dan Finkel and Shelly Varelli were crowned officially by the magistrate in a white wig, Arlene Singer, a retired judge.
“I think if you walk up and down this parade line and see how different everyone is, that's what makes this neighborhood unique. ... Very, very different people all live together in the same neighborhood,” this year’s king, Dan Finkel, a resident of the Old West End since 2011, said from atop the rolling flamingo.
Eclecticism was evident from the first three groupings in the parade, which included the local fire department’s bagpipers, the sequin-dipped Detroit Party Marching Band, and the royal flamingo float, but perhaps the most ironically paired grouping were the Pro-Palestinian contingent, complete with Free Palestine paraphernalia, next to the American flag crested Freedom Roofing company.
About 700 participated in the parade according to Mr. Kuhlman, spread across 65 different entries.
“A saying that gets said a lot about the Old West End is, ‘People come for the houses, and they stay for the people,’ and that was so true of me,” Mr. Finkel said. “I had this opportunity to live in this beautiful home in the Old West End. I took that opportunity and then I discovered the wonderful community that was in the Old West End, and I was hooked. I fell in love.”
Since the early 2010s, Mr. Finkel and others in the neighborhood have made considerable efforts to refurbish the historic Victorian homes for which the neighborhood is known.
Vacant and rehabbed homes were added to the list of homes festival goers could tour for the first time. Mr. Finkel said, “...this just shows the energy of what's happening with preservation and revitalization.”
Porch drinking, house tours, and art and yard sales are all part of the tradition of the neighborhood’s festival, and live music starts up in the evening at the Agnes Reynolds Jackson Arboretum from buskers, who can be found throughout the wooded streets.
“We don't miss it,” Jennifer Kendrick, 32, said of the festival, paying special attention to the Brownstone Stable’s horse, Jitterbug, in the parade.
Jed Hazel, 93, viewed Bancroft Street from an elevation, and took the trip up from Perrysburg to enjoy the festivities. “It [the Old West End Festival Parade] has such a variety of participants,” he said, and explained he started coming a couple decades ago when his daughter moved into the neighborhood.
Sue Kale, another longtime parade goer, said she started coming to the festival around the middle of the 20th century. “It's evolved into different themes, but it’s still fun, I still enjoy it,” she said.
First Published June 1, 2024, 9:46 p.m.
