Parade perfection: Official describes months of efforts to put on North Ogden’s Cherry Days parade
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- Participants on the North Ogden Jr. High School float soak the audience at the 2025 Cherry Days parade on Friday, July 4, 2025.
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- Kids rush for popsicles at the Cherry Days parade on Friday, July 4, 2025.
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- There were entries both big and small at the at the 2025 Cherry Days parade on Friday, July 4, 2025.
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- A member of the Weber MTB Team shows off at the 2025 Cherry Days parade on Friday, July 4, 2025.
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- No one was safe from water pistols at the 2025 Cherry Days parade on Friday, July 4, 2025.
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- Kids rush for candy at the 2025 Cherry Days parade on Friday, July 4, 2025.
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- Members of the American Legion Baker-Merrill Post 9 wave to the crowd at the 2025 Cherry Days parade on Friday, July 4, 2025.
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- Members of the 419th Fighter Wing fly over the 2025 Cherry Days parade on Friday, July 4, 2025.
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- The 2025 Cherry Days parade gets underway on Friday, July 4, 2025.
NORTH OGDEN — A parade seems like a pretty straightforward event.
Floats make their way down what’s usually a busy street, the people cheer and after an hour or so, it’s all over.
But in between the spectacle of children chasing candy, candidates chasing votes, blaring music, marching bands, old-fashioned cars, businesses, water pistols and other merriments, it’s easy to forget that there is a method to all this madness — and a lot of work to pull it off successfully.
The Cherry Days parade in North Ogden is no exception. And as the 2025 parade found itself nestled into Friday’s Independence Day holiday, officials gave a little insight into what it takes to put on the perfect parade.
Katie Gerard, human resources manager for North Ogden City, told the Standard-Examiner that preparation for Friday’s parade began months ago.
“Planning starts several months in advance, usually at the beginning of January,” she said. “Since the parade runs down Washington Boulevard this year — we have had it at different locations throughout different years — but this year, with it running down Washington, we did have to submit a permit to UDOT to get that road closure approved, and that usually takes a little bit of time.”
She said once that UDOT approval comes, it’s time to coordinate with city services about enforcing that closure.
“Once we get that approval from UDOT, we coordinate with our police department and our city employees to block off all major entrances,” she said. “This year, we’ve got all of our larger trucks, our plow trucks, our big ones that will take up the full space of the road, we got all of those at our key access points. Then we’ll have all of our police officers and employees stationed at each one to make sure that that route stays secure and safe for everybody involved.”
Gerard said the city has a committee on the parade that starts off meeting once per month to go over details.
“As it gets a little bit closer, we start meeting biweekly, then we start meeting weekly,” she said. “It’s just a lot of planning, a lot of individual meetings with our police department, a lot of meetings individually with public works and making sure everybody knows exactly where their role is, where they’re supposed to be stationed, who’s in charge of what that day.
Also starting months ahead of time is the effort to bring in entries for the parade itself.
“We like to reach out to our local schools, our local businesses and our residents to see who would like to participate,” Gerard said. “We do keep a list from previous years and add to it as we go each year, so our main goal for the parade is just to involve as many community members and organizations, locally, as possible.”
Gerard said each year’s Cherry Days parade is a big opportunity for community members.
“It’s also a really great chance for our local students to support their schools and the activities they’re in, whether it be student government, cheer, seminary, sports, wrestling and things like that,” she said. “It’s just a really fun time for them to get to come together to show their spirit for their school.”
This year, the Cherry Days parade happened to overlap with the Fourth of July — a date that sees several other area communities including Farr West, Marriott-Slaterville, Riverdale and Huntsville simultaneously running their own parades.
Despite the crowded field of area parades, Gerard said that it usually isn’t much of a challenge at all to find entries for the parade, and the same held true in 2025.
“Cherry Days has been a staple in our community for many, many years — way longer than since I’ve been here,” she said. “It’s a parade that everybody looks forward to every year. Cherry Days usually falls around the Fourth of July … it’s not meant ot be on the Fourth of July as a Fourth fo July parade; it just always falls around that time of year. And with it being such a fun event, people usually are calling because they want to be a part of our parade. So I wouldn’t say that having it on the Fourth stops anybody from participating. We usually have a fairly good turnout.”
This year’s parade drew around 81 entries ranging from first responders to schools to local political candidates and professional businesses.
One special entry didn’t join the other entries on the ground — a flyover by the 419th Fighter Wing stationed at Hill Air Force Base.
“We submitted the application for that quite a few months back,” she said. “We’ve just been watching our status as pending and it finally got to approval.”
While the date may not have been a problem, Gerard said parades always present some challenges for city officials — but it’s a challenge those officials employees meet yearly.
“The biggest challenge for us is making sure everything is organized and everyone’s on the same page,” she said. “There’s a lot of moving pieces and we just want everything to go off without a hitch. … Our employees are absolutely amazing and we’re really lucky to have an amazing team who takes on the planning of this event on top of their everyday responsibilities. It couldn’t run without them. We also have a very supportive and engaged community.”
Cherry Days celebrations are set to conclude Saturday night with a concert and fireworks.
For more information on Cherry Days, visit https://www.northogdencity.com/community/2025_cherry_days_celebration.php.
