Fourth of July Parade

Glover Street on the Fourth

The chamber asks spectators to bring their own chairs to the curb. Music and dancing begin in the street at 10 a.m., and at 11 the parade steps off. For the 2026 parade, the 135th annual, the route started at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Glover Street and ran north on Glover until it ended at Twisp Avenue. Units staged at TwispWorks from 9:30 a.m. Street repairs and renovations on Glover were expected to be mostly completed in time for the parade.

The Twisp Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Twisp, which present the parade together, list what fills the street: horses, bicycles, classic cars, trucks, decorated floats, dancing, live music, and community organizations. A 2021 account in the Methow Valley News adds animals, antique cars, and organizations carrying banners. The 2026 edition was billed as joining America’s 250th anniversary, and it fell on a Saturday.

The parade also collects food. A drive for The Cove runs with it, and organizers ask for sealed, canned, boxed, and pre-packaged non-perishables that are still within their “best used by” date.

Anyone may march. A 2024 press release put it this way: “Anyone and everyone is welcome to be a part of the Twisp Parade.” It invited people to show off “your business, organization, prize horse, classic car, musical talent, dance moves, decorated floats, circus skills, or any other form of patriotic entertainment that spectators would love to see.” In 2024 the horse riders gathered in the lot behind Hank’s Harvest Foods and followed the Methow Valley Horsemen to Canyon Street, then went north to Twisp Avenue and North Lincoln Street to fall in.

Water from District 6

The Okanogan County Fire District 6 trucks come near the end, and the newspaper called them “always-popular.” The chamber’s description tells parade-goers to “cool off under the refreshing spray” of the fire engine’s hose as the participants pass. In late August 2026, as smoke from that summer’s fires began to clear from the valley, the town’s tourism page thanked the district’s crews for their fire-season work. The same post noted that they also show up “for the fun stuff, too—like bringing a whole lot of joy (and a whole lot of water) to our Fourth of July Parade here in Twisp.”

There are no private fireworks to follow. Twisp bans personal fireworks and follows the county’s burn ban.

The rest of the morning

The parade is one part of a full day. In 2026 the Twisp Airport Fly-in, Cruise-in & Pancake Breakfast ran from 7 to 11 a.m. at the airport south of town. Visiting aircraft shared the field with the Methow Motorheads’ antique cars, trucks, and motorcycles, the Miss Bardahl hydroplane, and the North Cascades Smokejumpers. Breakfast was flapjacks with ham, eggs, blueberries, and whipped cream. On Highway 20 the weekly 10 a.m. Stand with Us demonstration planned to give that morning to the words of the Declaration of Independence.

When the last unit passes, Methow Arts opens its Arts Fest. The 39th annual festival in 2026 moved back to Twisp Town Park under the theme “Cultural Kaleidoscope.” Booths offered henna, friendship pins, hammered flower art, and tie-dye. On the stage, The Paperboys opened at 11:30 a.m. Leapin’ Louie, a cowboy comic, followed and then worked the crowd with tricks and juggling. SanZár Dance Company performed Mexican folklore in dance, and the local band Big Lake Judy closed the day.

The festival has moved about as often as the parade has changed direction. It began as a two-day event at Mack Lloyd Park in Winthrop. It later moved to the Twisp River Park and shrank to one day. Logistical trouble with the park sent it to the TwispWorks campus in 2023. In 2024, under the theme “Viva Twisp,” the bill included Zonky, a band of valley musicians that counted Twisp’s own mayor among its members.

Since 1891

According to the Methow Valley News, the valley’s first Fourth of July parade was held in 1891. Apart from an interruption early in the pandemic, it has been held every year since. That interruption was 2020. Arts Fest was canceled that year too, and it stayed dark in 2021, when Methow Arts held boat-in concerts at Patterson Lake instead.

The parade came back in 2021 under new management. Jamie Petitto, the chamber’s marketing director, explained the change in an email to the paper: “The Town had organized/’hosted’ the parade in the past, but handed the responsibility over to the chamber in 2019.” That year the chamber filed for a permit with the town and waited on the Town Council. It asked for volunteers to meet participants at TwispWorks before the parade and to help clean up afterward. The parade started at 11 a.m. on a Sunday, coming down Glover Street from the TwispWorks campus.

The route has changed since then. For the 132nd parade in 2023, the newspaper reported that the parade would “reverse its usual course.” Staging was at the Town Park at the north end of Lincoln Street, and the parade went south down Glover from Twisp Avenue to Fifth Avenue, ending at the gate of Arts Fest’s new home at TwispWorks. The 133rd parade in 2024 followed the same southbound line. By 2026 the parade was again starting at Fifth and Glover and heading north to Twisp Avenue.