Parade

2023 Morton Pumpkin Festival Parade

2023 Parade Float Decorating Winners:

Grand Prize Winner: Morton Buildings

Commercial 1st Place: Caterpillar
Commercial 2nd Place: OSF Morton
Commercial 3rd Place: Cadence Academy Preschool

Non-Commercial 1st Place: Girl Scouts Troop 4969
Non-Commercial 2nd Place: Bethel Lutheran School
Non-Commercial 3rd Place: Eastside Bible

MORTON PUMPKIN FESTIVAL PARADE 2023
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
10:30 AM

Applications for the 2023 Morton Pumpkin Festival Parade are now closed. For any questions, please reach out to paggen@mortonillinois.org.

2023 Parade Line-Up

Number Name of Organization or Business
1 Chief of Police
2 American Legion
3 Fire Department
4 Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office
5 Troop 178 & 1178, Scouts BSA
6 Morton High School Marching Band
7 Morton High School Dance Team
8 Morton High School Cheer Team
9 2023 Parade Marshal / Ackerman Family Farms LLC
10 Libby
11 Mayor Kaufman
12 Pumpkin Princess Carriage
13 Precious Baby Contest
14 Pumpkin Weigh Off – Nestle
15 Pumpkin Idol Jr. Winner
16 Hackman Dancers
17 Morton Jr. High School Band
18 Wienermobile
19 Morton Junior High Dance Team

20

20B

Morton Jr High Cheer

Morton Redwings
21

Caterpillar – Morton Distribution Center

22 Morton FFA
23 Hooked on Fishing
24 Morton Community Bank
25 JH Car Wash
26 Elevate Church
27 Crumbl Cookie
28 Reflections Memory Care
29 WOOF Therapy Dogs
30 Re/Max Traders Unlimited
31 Better Banks
32 Peoria Ice Cream Company
33 Smalltown Dental
34 Celtic Cross
35 Central Illinois Riding Therapy
36 Morton Cub Scout Pack 85
37 Bethel Lutheran School
38 Yordy Turkey Farm
39 Your Hometown Allstate Team
40 Girl Scout Troop 4969
41 Blain’s Farm & Fleet of Morton
42 Tazewell County Republican Party
43 Chick-fil-A
44 Heroes Inc.
45 Keller Williams Premier Realty, The Glover-Smith Group
46 Morton Volleyball
47 OSF Morton Pediatrics & OSF Morton Family
48 Central Intermediate School Band
49 Cadence Academy Preschool
50 JR’s Landscape Services
51 Parkin Farms
52 Red Sneakers for Oakley Ambassador
53 Tender Care Animal Hospital
54 Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group
55 Everest Lifted Trucks
56 Morton Gameball Run
57 Stuber Land Design
58 Tazewell County Democrats
59 Trail Life Troop IL 3:16
60 Morton Girls Softball Association
61 Midwest Food Bank
62 Concordia Lutheran Marching Cougar Band
63 Southstream Classic Cars
64 Darrin Johnston
65 Pine Lake Dog Boarding Doggy Daycare
66 104.9 The Wolf
67 Girl Scouts of Central Illinois
68 Tazewell Floors and Design
69 Legacy Solar, LLC
70 Potter’s Alley
71 Blessed Sacrament School with Mike Murphy Ford
72 Morton Antique Tractor Club
73 Big Cats and St. Pats Marching Band
74 River City Roofing
75 WBNH Radio
76 Morton Buildings
77 Blue Jays Learning Center
78 Tanner Farms
79 Star Wars Costuming Groups
80 Captivation Dance
81 Service Master KRS
82 Morton Industries
83 Brewers Distributing Company
84 Two Men and a Truck
85 Morton Leaves ‘n Beans Coffee
86 Precision Planting
87 Roanoke-Benson High School
88 Eastside Bible Church
89 Peoria Prowlers Roller Derby
90 PFLAG Peoria
91 MIX 106.9
92 German-Bliss Equipment
93 The Mosquito Authority
94 Elevate Trampoline Park
95 WCIC
96 BTC Manufacturing
97 Winkel Lawn Care & Landscaping Inc.
98 KZ 102.3
99 Kennel Lake Sportsmen’s Club
100 CASE IH (CNH Industrial)
101 Veterans Group

The parade line-up will be released early September.

Sponsored By:

Donut Stands Hosted By:

One of the premier events at the Morton Pumpkin Festival is the Morton Pumpkin Festival Parade. Held Saturday morning at 10:30 am along Jefferson Street, the parade boasts over 100 entries including floats, marching bands, antique vehicles, and popular children’s characters.

The parade route will again feature our Parade Donut Stands. Stop by the bright blue Pepsi concession trailers, located in key spots along Jefferson Street, for pumpkin donuts, coffee, milk, and cold beverages.  Hosted by MYBA (Morton Youth Baseball Association) these stands are the perfect way to enjoy a taste of the Morton Pumpkin Festival while also supporting a local non-profit organization.  MYBA will also be selling pumpkin donuts from golf carts along the parade route!

Don’t forget to bring a bag to collect candy and toys, handed out by many of our Festival entries, and please wear ORANGE to the parade to show your pumpkin spirit!

We can’t wait to see you at the Morton Pumpkin Festival Parade! If you can’t join us in person, watch the parade streaming live from your home or office at www.mortonpumpkinfestival.org

Parade Route

Parade Rules & Regulations

Parade entries must be decorated to the 2023 Festival theme — “Farmin’ Pumpkins

No weapons or items resembling a weapon. If you are in doubt about whether something is a weapon or resembles a weapon, please do not bring it to the parade. If you bring such items, you will be kindly asked to put the items away during the parade.

Float entries must be on a hayrack or flatbed trailer. Maximum height of floats is 13 feet, 9 inches in order to clear electrical lines.

All walkers must be 8 years old or older. Younger children can safely ride on floats or be pushed/pulled in strollers or wagons accompanied by an adult. For safety, please make sure walkers stay a safe distance from vehicles and floats at all times.

Entries must keep their unit moving along the parade route and must keep a distance of no more than 30 feet between their unit and the entry in front of them.

No literature may be distributed.

No confetti or streamers may be thrown. Candy or toys may be distributed as follows:

  • No candy or toys can be thrown from a float, car, truck, or
  • Candy or toys may be thrown into the crowd by people walking alongside an
  • Walkers must be a minimum of 5’ away from an entry when throwing candy or toys.
  • Entries should not stop along the route for candy/toy throwers to refill their

Antique and custom vehicles may enter individually or as part of a group with a limit of 5 vehicles for any one group. Antique tractors pulling a float will be counted as part of the float entry.

Marching/Walking units are limited to:

  • Morton Boy Scout or Girl Scout Club
  • Marching Band
  • Flag or Rifle Corp
  • Military/Veteran’s organization
  • Politicians, as noted by rules regarding political entries
  • Mascots and kid-friendly characters

Semi units are not permitted in the parade.

Animal units are required to have their own cleanup system and/or crew.

Commercial Vehicles may enter the parade if they are:

  • Pulling a float decorated to festival
  • Being used by a non-profit Morton organization and are decorated to festival
  • Being used by approved

Area politicians may enter as a separate unit or may ride on the float/entry for their party. This includes State Senators, State Representatives, Judges, Regional/County offices, and local offices.

No inflammatory, negative, or profane language, messaging, or music

No scary costumes or haunted house related entries

No flips, back-hand-springs, or acrobatics of any kind

No provocative clothing, displays, signage, or music

Do not leave any personal items in Lincoln School’s bathrooms at the beginning of the Parade route. The schools will be locked up as soon as the parade finishes stepping off.

Parade officials reserve the right to restrict, limit, or reject (at any time including during the parade) any entry that in the sole determination of parade officials is inflammatory, controversial, and/or upsetting, or does not abide by the rules and regulations.

Parade officials will welcome and visit with parade entries and their Parade Unit On-Site Contacts during the staging of the parade in order to promote compliance with these rules and regulations. We please ask for your cooperation in making the parade enjoyable for all concerned

MORTON PUMPKIN FESTIVAL PARADE 2022
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
10:30 AM

Applications for the 2022 Morton Pumpkin Festival Parade are closed. For any questions, please reach out to proche@mortonillinois.org.

Date: Saturday, September 17
Time: 10:30 AM 
Parade Marshal Host: Gary Watson

What is a Reverse Parade?

To showcase our community’s creativity and celebrate our local businesses and organizations, Roaring Pumpkins and All That Jazz will host a Reverse Parade this year. This year, instead of having our floats travel down the parade route, parade attendees will drive along a lineup of stationery parade floats at the Morton VFW Post 5921, 2310 Veterans Rd.

This will be a float-only parade. All floats will be asked to be decorated and/or constructed to the Roaring Pumpkins and All That Jazz theme. Groups that normally participate in the parade but do not have a float (marching bands, walking groups, etc.) will have the option of submitting a 30-second video that will be compiled with other entries and shared on the Festival Facebook and YouTube pages. Marching bands can submit a song up to 2-minutes.

Float entries will be asked to park their float in place by 8:30 AM on Saturday, September 19 before the parade attendees arrive. Each entry may only request a single space that is 25 ft. The float will remain in this spot until 2:30 PM, after the last car finishes the route (last car will be admitted at 2:00 PM).

For the safety of our float entries, volunteers, and attendees, float entries are encouraged to drop off their floats and return to pick them up after 2:30pm.

 

Floats will not be permitted to pass out anything during the Reverse Parade, but may submit heat resistant candy or other handout items to be added to a family goodie bag that will be handed out to the first 50 cars that arrive each hour (10:30am, 11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm)

 

*Due to being limited to a certain amount of space, there will only be 30 floats in this year’s parade.*

 

Entries that wish to be judged will compete for the $250 Grand Prize and $100 for Best Commercial and $100 Non-Commercial Entry.

Thank you to our sponsor: