The annual Fourth of July Parade, sponsored by the Silver State International Rodeo (SSIR), is known to get a bit wild with water balloons flying every which way, some with a lot of force, but this year, both the City of Winnemucca and SSIR are banning water balloons.
The City and SSIR officials have assured that parade participants and the crowds will be allowed to uphold the traditions of using water guns and other water play, but many reports of injuries and other accidents related to water balloons have been cause for the ban.
The balloons leave behind a significant mess for not only the City to clean up, but local business owners as well. Business owners and city officials have reported property damages in the past, too.
According to Winnemucca Mayor Rich Stone, there were even reports of a broken window from a water balloon and a fender bender that was caused by a balloon hitting an unsuspecting driver at last year’s parade.
Other instances have occurred where participants have been knocked from floats after being pelted with balloons and many participants and crowd members have reported leaving the parade with welts and bruises from balloons.
“This is a fun parade for many people. However over the last few years it has become a very aggressive competition between participants and spectators. There were rumors of frozen water balloons last year, but I do not believe there were any. If water balloons are under inflated they don’t break on impact but do hurt,” explained Stone in an email.
The Winnemucca City Council approved the street closure for the parade at their regular meeting on June 7 and Barbara Stanton with SSIR was present for the agenda item.
She explained that SSIR will be checking floats to make sure that parade participants do not have balloons.
“It’s either [we ban the balloons] or we won’t be able to have the parade,” explained Stanton to the Council.
The Council was pleased to hear that SSIR will be enforcing the ban on balloons, with Councilman Vince Mendiola saying “This may be a very unpopular decision but it may be what’s best for the City.”
Stanton also said that SSIR wants to get the word out to the public as well to help prevent accidents, damage, messes and other problems.
“I would very much like to see the parade continue but if we can not get some of these issues resolved [the Council] may not approve it in the future. I believe SSIR can control the participants, so I am asking the public to help us with this also,” explained Stone in an email.