The Carbondale Lights Fantastic Parade is held every year on the first Saturday of December. This year, the parade will be held on December 2nd at 6:00 p.m. on Illinois Avenue from Grand Avenue to Main Street, which means those streets will be closed down until the parade is over.

The parade will have many floats and decorated vehicles, such as fire trucks and police cars. If you are interested in participating in the parade, go to the Carbondale Lights Fantastic Parade homepage to register. https://lightsfantasticparade.com.

When emailed and asked about how the parade became an annual event, the Lights Fantastic Parade organization responded with, “It started by a Grassroots Committee who wanted to bring an annual holiday event to Carbondale, Illinois. The first parade was in 1990 and has been going on for nearly 3 decades.” While the parade is going on, there will be vendors which usually sell things like hot cocoa. The parade is a nonprofit organization and is completely run by volunteers and community donations.

During the parade, there will be areas for you to park which you can find the map for on their website. For more information you can check out some of the parade socials such as Instagram and Facebook. This event is something everyone and their families can enjoy and is completely free.