It’s Fabulous. Fantastical. Fanatical.
It’s the Kirby Derby Day Parade!

Home grown, home made and non-motorized, participation in the Kirby Derby parade is free and open to everyone (registration required). All it takes is some fun creativity to present your vision of the annual Kirby Derby theme.

Bring it with costumes, with music, with non-motorized moving creations! Show off your neighborhood, your community, your family!

The parade starts at 4:30pm-ish sharp. Line-up is at 4:00pm.
Please be ready at the top of Harvey Hill at this time.

PLEASE NOTE: You must participate in the parade to enter the soapbox derby.

Registration is required. Read rules below and then click link to sign up.

The Rules, Y’all

WHO CAN JOIN?

Parade participation is open to all. Participants under 18 must have an adult sign them in. Participants under age 14 must have an adult accompany them.

BUILD IT. RIDE IT. KEEP IT SAFE.

All Parade entries are NON-MOTORIZED. Bring your walking shoes, pedal-based bikes and trikes, scooters, or, of course, your gravity-based derby racers. Gas- or electric-powered vehicles are not permitted.

Entries should be safe for all participants as well as spectators of all ages. Keep safety, visibility, and controllability in mind when creating your entry.

Any parade entry on wheels must have proper steering and brake mechanisms and CANNOT be motorized. Derby racers and wheeled floats/entries should also have a strong bumper or bar and tow rope, where applicable.

Anyone riding or driving a wheeled entry must wear a helmet. Drivers must be sober and must be able to see clearly in front of them and to either side.

Any entry on wheels should have a walker on each side to help maintain walking-speed pace, navigate the route, and keep spectators safely out of the way.

The parade route has a decent hill and some turns, so make sure your entry can safely handle the route. Bring whatever strength, help, or ingenuity you need to get up the hill.

Don’t make your float too tall. We have trees, y’all.

CONTENT & COSTUMES

Parade entries must somehow relate to the Kirby Derby theme (see home page for theme).

Kirby Derby is for everybody, so keep your costumes, props, language, and overall content appropriate for a public event. Please skip anything that could reasonably be mistaken for a weapon or that threatens, targets, or puts other people at risk. Be weird. Be outrageous. Just keep it fun for everybody.

If a parade entry is deemed unsafe, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate, Kirby Derby organizers can refuse entry. (This has never happened, but just sayin’—be good.)

THE HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC JUDGING PROCESS

There will be a judging area on the route. Judging criteria will be determined at some point and will not be shared with participants until the “awards” are given.

We can almost guarantee that awards will be based on the judges’ moods, whims, personal biases, and whatever they happen to find hilarious that day. Awards are for bragging rights only. They have no monetary value, but we think they are extremely valuable anyway.