Whenever there is a festival in Fishers, I try my best to walk around and take a few photos.  That wasn’t possible for the 2021 Spark Fishers Festival.

I had a volunteer duty to staff the public address station at Holland Drive and Ellipse Parkway, at the main entrance to Holland Park.  That was a good distance from the center of the festival at the Municipal Complex, so photos for this year were out for me.  I have included some photos from the city in this post.

Parades are unpredictable events.  There are always units out of order and a few that just don’t show up.  That complicates the work of a public address announcer.  The parade organizers were able to provide scripts for me the day before, giving me time to look them over.

Then there was the wind.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.  There was no rain and the the temperatures were fairly comfortable for this time of year.  Kudos to the Fishers City staff that built the tent for my location, it was solid.  Not all the tents made it through that windy Saturday.

Allow me to thank my niece Jenna Petroff, a counselor at Fishers High School, and her husband Phil, a teacher at Sand Creek Elementary, for volunteering to help me out.  Without them, I would not know which unit was coming next and the wind would have swept away my written scripts.

Based on the crowd in and around Holland Drive & Ellipse Parkway, the 2021 parade was a hit.  My understanding was the rest of the parade route had lots of spectators and the festival near City Hall was busy as well.

Just another example of how people everywhere are anxious to celebrate after our lockdown in 2020.  When we were in the depths of the lockdown last year, I wrote that Fishers needed a big party once the pandemic was less of a threat.  We had that party Saturday.

As I was leaving the parade, I had a little girl come up to me, I would guess 4 or 5 years old.  She had some candy that had been handed out during the parade.  She gave me a piece of candy to thank me for the parade.

I accepted, knowing I symbolized the parade for her as the PA announcer.  I accepted not for myself, but on behalf of all the volunteers, paid professionals and sponsors that made the festival possible.

I haven’t had the heart to eat that candy yet.   Once I do, I will think about all the people in Fishers, coming together and making the Spark Fishers Festival possible.