The Sandy Parade is Back

For the first time in three years, Sandy will celebrate the Mountain Festival, and are we ever ready to celebrate! This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Sandy Mountain Festival! Chair place-markers will start lining the streets more than a day earlier than the parade starts Thursday, July 7 at 7 p.m. Lots of younger children will sit out front on the curb hoping for candy, which cannot be thrown this year but may be neatly handed out. Parade participants will follow the route from the Tollgate Inn and march uphill on Pioneer to Wolf Drive, then turn right before disbanding. Sandy Historical Society President Wynn Thies will be driving his vintage 1924 Model T automobile carrying a special passenger: 2009 Festival Queen Connie Revenue Selzler. She is the great-granddaughter of the first pioneers to settle in this area: Francis and Lydia Revenue, who arrived in 1853, built the first bridge over the Sandy River, stocked the first store for travelers, and built the first one-roomed, log cabin school, which was called the Revenue school. Museum walkers will wear vintage clothing from the 50s: the 1850s, that is. After the parade the music part of the festival will begin, as the "gardens" will be back. The first evening is traditionally for families.