City-wide parade kicks off annual Fun Fest celebration

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) – The first of the nine-day Fun Fest celebration kicked off Friday evening with the annual Fun Fest parade.

Members of the Kingsport community set up chairs throughout the downtown area for a chance to watch the highly-anticipated parade.

“We get really excited to get to this day,” said Emily Thompson, director of Fun Fest for Visit Kingsport. “See all the shirts, all the hats, all the things that we’ve been seeing as we felt the excitement of coming into kicking off this year’s festival.”

The parade featured everything from churches to local businesses and even gymnasts.

“We had about 100 entries,” Thompson said. “Of course, many of those have multiple vehicles.”

The variety of participants is intriguing to people like the Moriartys.

“We started [attending] in ’86, and we haven’t missed any,” said Pat Moriarty.

For Pat and his wife, Brenda, the parade prepares them to celebrate the Kingsport staple.

“It gets you into the spirit of Fun Fest right away,” said Pat. “We’ve already attended some of the events, but we didn’t want to miss this one.”

While the Moriartys have attended many parades, others are attending their first one this year.

“I’m from Chattanooga, Tennessee and I got the ability to come and join Kingsport today in this family Fun Fest parade,” said Stephanie Valencia.

Valencia walked in the parade alongside a group raising awareness for ALS. For her, the parade showed her just how important the event is to the Kingsport Community.

“The community is very involved in the family Fun Fest parade,” said Valencia. “It’s just a way that everybody can come together and celebrate and have a sense of joy and fun.”

The celebration continues with a Street Fair, the annual Crazy 8’s race, and a series of concerts. A complete list of events can be found here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.