It’s billed as a kind of parade that no other town in the world has. And it was born from the premise that “in 1986, no marching band could be found for Windham’s Memorial Day Parade,” according to the event’s longtime grand marshal. Now, the 39th annual WILI Boom Box Parade begins at 11 a.
m. at Jillson Square in Willimantic on Thursday, July 4. According to WILI’s Wayne Norman, it’s the largest parade of its kind in the world.
Norman, WILI-AM’s morning man since 1970, always leads the parade and serves as its grand marshal. Just weeks after the marching band issue arose in 1986, the Boom Box Parade concept was born, and WILI-AM radio continues to play the marching band music on the air on July 4 to this day. The parade draws thousands of participants and spectators, who loudly play music on their radios.
“No other town in the world has a parade like Windham’s,” according to Norman. Norman has led the parade in classic cars, was a patriotic butterfly in 2013, and a “Frog of Windham,” in 2012, joined by WILI’s ceramic “Frogcaster.” Also serving as the radio voice of the Huskies, Norman has marched in a UConn basketball uniform to honor the 1999, 2011 and 2023 NCAA champs.
In 1998 he pulled the world’s largest boom box while rollerblading. And in 2022, he honored ECSU’s NCAA championship baseball team by marching while wearing an Eastern uniform. Anyone can march, or enter a float, in “Connecticut’s Unique People’s Parade.
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