Fourth of July Parade

Pancakes at Grant and First

On the morning of the Fourth, before Grant Avenue fills, volunteers from the Presbyterian Church of Novato open the Buckaroo Breakfast in the Redwood Credit Union parking lot at Grant Avenue and First Street. From seven until ten they serve pancakes, traditional and gluten-free, with scrambled eggs, meat and vegetarian sausage, coffee, and orange juice. The money goes to North Marin Community Services. At nine the free warm-up acts begin along the route. The organizers call them acts that “get us all into a festive mood” and recommend them to anyone who arrives early, “& especially children.”

At ten the parade steps off from Grant Avenue at Reichert Avenue, in the heart of Old Town. It runs west about seven-tenths of a mile to Seventh Street and takes about two hours. The organizers estimate 10,000 spectators along the sidewalks and on that count call it the largest Independence Day event in the North Bay. It is also the largest single-day event in Novato, since the Festival of Art, Wine & Music and Nostalgia Days each run over two days.

Chairs go on the sidewalk only, never in the street. The special event permit bars pets other than service animals. A 2023 safety notice in the Marinscope said many people bring well-behaved dogs anyway, and that “it’s not really a day when officers and parade officials want to hold the hard line. However, those are the rules.” Alcohol, smoking, and vaping are not allowed near the route. The same notice warned that Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit trains now cross downtown. In 2023 one southbound train was expected through during the parade at 11:01 a.m., “give or take.”

Seven-tenths of a mile of entries

The parade has about 100 entries from Novato and neighboring towns. Some entries are a single person, typically a distinguished guest in a classic convertible. Others are dozens of people from a school, a sports team, or a dance studio. Four announcer stands along the route give color commentary. A panel of judges awards prizes for classic vehicle; horse and animal performance; marching unit; non-commercial; and commercial entries.

At the 2026 parade, Marin Landscape Materials won both best commercial and best overall. Love2Dance took best performance, the Knights of Columbus best marching, Marin Sanitary Service best classic, and the Novato Horseman best animals. In August 2026, at a Novato City Council meeting, the committee presented Marin Landscape Materials with the Kathy Nickel Eagle Award, the parade’s grand prize.

Some entries come back year after year. After the 2026 parade, Eric Lucan wrote that he had ridden with Charles Thompson in his 1949 Cadillac Series 62 convertible “as we have for over a decade.” The committee posted its thanks that July to “our hometown plunger brigade.” In 2012, Richard and Robert Nave marched as patriarchs of the Nave Patrola, a comical marching brigade. The Naves belong to one of Novato’s oldest families. That same year the Novato Girl Scout Service Unit marked its 100th anniversary by marching in heritage uniforms from as far back as the 1930s, with uniforms dating to 1919 hung on their trucks. In 2024 the Ophir Prison Marching Kazoo Band & Temperance Society marched in the parade and then gave a concert at Pocket Park, near the end of the route.

Orange shirts on Grant Avenue

Many people assume the city, the Downtown Novato Business Association, or the Novato Chamber of Commerce puts on the parade, the organizers say. It is in fact run by the Novato Fourth of July Parade Committee, Inc., an independent nonprofit of 15 volunteers. The committee receives support from the city, Marin County, and local businesses. Jennifer Goldfinger is board president and co-chairs the committee with Sophia Osotio and Shawna McNulty. Planning for each July begins the October before.

On parade day the committee needs more hands than it has members. Goldfinger puts the number at about 75. The 2026 press release gives a typical range of 60 to 80. Volunteers put up the temporary no-parking signs, metal barriers, and announcer stands, and they meet entrants at the staging areas. Once the parade starts, they watch the barriers at the cross-streets. They remind children not to run into the street and remind entrants not to throw anything into the crowd. Spotters along the route speed up or slow down the entries to keep the spacing even. “Ever seen a parade with some gaps?” Goldfinger wrote. “That’s a sign that not enough people volunteered to be ‘game day’ helpers.”

Only two dozen event-day volunteers worked the 2025 parade. In May 2026 Goldfinger wrote that the board was “extremely concerned that we won’t be able to hold the parade this year without increasing the number of event-day volunteers.” Osotio, the volunteer coordinator, said that month: “As of mid-May, we only have two dozen people who have signed up, so we are concerned but hopeful.”

The 2026 parade went on as planned on Saturday, July 4, with the nation’s 250th anniversary as its theme. Volunteers wore orange T-shirts along Grant Avenue. The grand marshals were Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam. The committee’s site lists the next parade for Sunday, July 4, 2027, “same time, same place.”

A reluctant hardware man

Each parade has a theme and usually a grand marshal drawn from the town. In 2013 the theme was “unsung heroes,” and the committee asked Chip Young, owner of Pini Hardware. “I declined,” Young said. “I told them ‘it’s just not me.’” The parade chairwoman, Kathy Nickel, “wouldn’t take no for an answer.” “I told them I don’t deserve it, but they threatened to camp out in front of my office,” Young said. Nickel called him “a big-hearted man who does what he can for Novato in a quiet but valuable manner.” Young described the event himself: “It’s a parade of regular people. It’s just a real hometown parade that doesn’t put up any pretense of being anything but that.” Guests that year included Patty Bennett, Novato’s 2012 Citizen of the Year, and the astronaut Yvonne Cagle.

The 2023 theme was “A Nation of Innovation,” with three grand marshals. They were Kenny Wilson, a Buck Institute researcher raised in Ignacio; Betsy Ricketts of Ultragenyx; and Ken Sprague of BioMarin. “There is no place in the world where I feel more at home,” Wilson said. Cheryl Paddack, CEO of North Marin Community Services, led the 2024 parade under the theme “Love Where You Love … Make a Difference.”

Kathy Nickel was the parade’s longtime chair, and the committee describes her as its chief organizer and the volunteers’ “spiritual inspiration.” She was Novato’s 2015 Citizen of the Year. She died three days after the 2024 parade. In 2025 the committee asked her family to serve as grand marshals under a big-top theme, “The Greatest Town on Earth.” Her name is now on the grand prize.

From the greased pig to Western Weekend

The current parade dates from 1993. The 2012 parade was the 20th annual. Novato historians say the town’s parades go back to about the turn of the 20th century and possibly into the 1800s. In 2013 the Novato Historical Guild shared photographs of the oldest documented one, held in 1908, on the unpaved roads that are now downtown. A 1963 Novato Advance article by Frances Bond McGlauflin remembered those early Fourths as “one of the most carefully planned celebrations in the whole year.” She wrote that they “included the pre-Fourth dance, the queen contest, a parade committee, a huge barbecue, a baseball game, the greased pole and greased pig contests and the sack races.” “The day meant something,” McGlauflin wrote. “The services in the old square were well attended, and there was entertainment galore.”

The township stopped holding the parade in the early 1920s, according to Mike Read, a Novato historian and former guild president. Organizers had trouble finding volunteers for what was then a weekend-long event. The celebration returned in the 1950s as Western Weekend, a festival usually held after school let out in late June. Novato became a city in 1960. Western Weekend ended in the late 1970s. “Rumor has it they did until the motorcycle gangs started showing up and then they decided they better not do it anymore,” Read said. The town then went without a parade until the present organization formed in 1993.

The 2020 parade was to have honored the centennial of women’s suffrage under the theme “The Power of Her Vote.” That April the committee cancelled it. “It’s the right thing to do considering the public health consequences of bringing a crowd together,” said Mike Read, then board president. In 2021, with pandemic restrictions still in place, the committee held the parade online for a second straight year, built from photographs and videos sent in by the public.

The Novato Historical Guild, which had shared the 1908 photographs, entered the 2026 parade and won the prize for best non-commercial entry.