It’s back — Charlotte Tractor Parade

After a couple of years’ hiatus, the Charlotte Tractor Parade returns 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 13.

The parade route is the same loop that was used when the parade was last held two years ago. The parade itself will be 1-1:30 p.m.

Those driving tractors in the parade will meet beforehand at Green Mountain Hay, just south of the intersection of Hinesburg Road and Spear Street, for a private farmers’ appreciation lunch. When the parade starts, they will drive north on Spear Street to the intersection and head east on Hinesburg Road to Bean Road, where they will head south. At Prindle Road, the tractor drivers will head west back to Spear Street, then back north to the starting point.

This was the route that was planned for last year, but that parade was canceled because of heavy rain. It rained that weekend for a couple of days. Since the field where cars would have parked was already saturated from a summer of excessive rain, Carrie Spear said she called it off, worried about vehicles getting stuck and damage to that farm.

The parade was not held in 2022 because Spear took a year off to regroup after it had gotten so large.

She was joined in making a presentation to the selectboard at its Sept. 23 meeting by Terra Heilenbach, who Spear expects will take over the parade that she has — please pardon the expression — spearheaded for over 20 years and shepherded into becoming one of the most anticipated events on the Charlotte calendar.

Spear said in the parade’s most recent incarnations they have had 60-80 tractors and drawn thousands of spectators.

Although the parade hasn’t been held for two years, she said it didn’t go away. The parade remained “in spirit because the subject never goes away.”

Heilenbach called a few months ago, introduced herself and asked if the parade was going to happen. Spear said it would, if Heilenbach helped, and she agreed to.

“We’re friends now,” Spear said. She expects Heilenbach will take the parade over in the future and “take it to a new level, which is really ‘a rush.’”

In her application asking for selectboard approval of the event, Spear had asked to have Spear Street closed from Prindle Road to the Hinesburg Road-Spear Street intersection 1-1:30 p.m. during the parade, but when chair Jim Faulkner expressed concerns about this, she said it didn’t need to be closed.

The organizers expect there will be seven vendors or caterers at the parade. The center of activities will move south from the area of the intersection to Green Mountain Hay at 3278 Spear Street. There is a field behind the barnyard that has been dubbed the Field of Fun where primary non-parade festivities will be held.

Spear recommends bringing chairs or blankets, but no pets. Handicapped and senior-citizen parking will be just north of the Field of Fun, and able-bodied spectator parking is across Spear Street from Green Mountain Hay.

“It’s just a day to relax and watch tractors come and go. And play in a big field,” she said.