Start the Presses: Join Napa's Fourth of July Parade - or the Register's not-quite-precision drill team

05 Jun 2026, 14:05 · The Fresno Bee

Dan Evans

If you have ever looked at Napa's Fourth of July parade and thought, "You know, what this really needs is me," I have good news.

It probably does.

It might need your youth soccer team. Or your service club. Or your church group. Or your vintage car. Or your dance troupe. Or your neighborhood's hastily-but-lovingly constructed float featuring bunting, balloons and at least one person waving with the solemn dignity of a minor royal.

It might need your business, your nonprofit, your veterans group, your scout troop, your marching musicians, your cheer squad or your carefully-decorated wagon.

Mostly, though, it needs the thing all good parades need: people willing to step off the curb and into the street.

The 2026 Napa Fourth of July Parade, organized by Napa Sunrise Rotary, is now accepting applications. The deadline to apply is June 15, which, as anyone who has ever procrastinated on a parade entry can tell you, is basically tomorrow wearing a fake mustache.

Napa Valley Register's Fourth of July entry

A few of the local participants along the parade route who joined in the Napa Valley Register's entry for the 2025 Fourth of July Parade.

The parade itself kicks off at 9 a.m. on July 4. Staging begins at 7:30 a.m., which is early, yes, but patriotism, like print journalism, has never been an industry for late risers.

This year's theme is "America 250: Unite for Good," marking the coming 250th anniversary of the country. The parade rules call for entries to showcase either the anniversary theme or Independence Day, and to keep things family-friendly. Music is encouraged. Floats are welcome. Wagons, walkers, antique cars, clubs and community groups all have a place.

There are, of course, rules. This is a forward-motion parade, which means participants need to keep moving. There are designated places for performances, but this is not the time to stage the full three-act musical version of your nonprofit's annual report. Candy, favors and handouts cannot be tossed or distributed along the route. Drones are not allowed. Floats have size limits. Animals need cleanup crews. Children need supervision.

In other words, the organizers have done the careful, practical work of making sure the rest of us can have fun without accidentally turning downtown Napa into a slow-moving insurance claim.

And that work matters.

It is easy to think of a parade as something that simply happens. One day, the street is closed, the flags are up, the kids are perched on curbs and someone in a convertible is waving like they have been practicing in the mirror.

But parades do not happen by magic. They happen because volunteers organize them, cities permit them, community groups show up for them and people decide that being a little silly in public is worth the effort.

That last part is more important than it sounds.

A parade is one of the few remaining civic rituals where the whole point is simply to be together. Not to argue in a comment section. Not to sit in assigned ideological seating. Not to pretend that the divisions in the country are imaginary or that patriotism is simple. But to stand, walk, wave, clap and remember that community is not only something we debate. It is something we do.

Last year, I wrote after the parade that I had been feeling a little complicated about the whole Fourth of July enterprise. That remains true. Waving a flag does not require pretending everything in the country is going well. Loving a place does not mean agreeing with everyone currently in charge of it. Patriotism, at its best, is not a denial of problems. It is a commitment to keep showing up anyway.

The Napa parade is a good place to do that.

Last year's parade featured dozens of entries, including elected officials, youth teams, service clubs, local businesses, Napa Pride, the Napa County Master Gardeners and Los Diablos Oaxaqueños del Valle, whose masks, music and foot-stomping energy were a reminder that American identity has never been just one thing.

It was joyful. It was loud. It was a little chaotic. It was Napa.

This year, Napa Sunrise Rotary is asking more people to join in. Schools, sports teams, clubs, first responders, active military and veterans can enter at no charge. Nonprofit community organizations pay $100, while government entries and businesses pay $300. Applications are available at napa4thofjulyparade.com.

And, yes, the Napa Valley Register is once again planning to enter our own little rolling contribution to civic spectacle.

The Register Precision Drill Team of Wheelbarrows and Wagons will return this year, and the word "precision" will again be used in the most generous possible sense. There is no cost to be involved, except in the "dance like no one is watching" sense.

The concept is simple: Members of the public can join our parade entry with decorated wagons, wheelbarrows or other human-powered contraptions on wheels. Last year, about 30 adults and children joined us, pushing and pulling close to a dozen wagons decorated in red, white and blue. We waved. We bubbled. We performed something that might generously be called choreography. At the reviewing station, we executed a "circling of the wagons" maneuver that was, if not militarily precise, at least emotionally committed.

This year, we would like to make it bigger, brighter and perhaps even 12% more coordinated.

About 30 people participated in the Napa Valley Register's entry in the Sunrise Rotary's Fourth of July Parade in 2025.

Families are welcome. Friend groups are welcome. Solo participants are welcome. Children are welcome, though parade rules apply, including age and supervision requirements. If you do not have a wagon, there may still be ways to participate. We will need banner holders, bubble makers, enthusiastic wavers and people willing to look confident while following very simple instructions.

To join the Register's drill team, apply through the parade website and select the Precision Drill Team option. We will hold a practice of sorts on June 14 at 10 a.m., the day before the parade application deadline, at the Register's new offices at 1500 Third St. in Napa. This will not be a grueling rehearsal. No one will be cut. There will be no whistle, no clipboard and no disappointed coach telling you to take another lap.

The goal is to meet, laugh, figure out the route, discuss basic safety and decide how best to move a collection of decorated wagons through downtown Napa without causing confusion, injury or a congressional inquiry.

So please consider this your invitation.

If your organization has been thinking about entering the parade, enter the parade. If your business has a truck, decorate it. If your nonprofit has a mission, show it off. If your club has matching shirts, this is their moment. If your family has a wagon and a weakness for glitter, you know where to find us.

The application deadline is June 15. The parade is July 4. The community is Napa.

Let's make the street look like it.

And if you see a group of people rolling wagons in loose formation, smiling a little too widely and trying very hard to remember whether we turn left or right at the next cue, that will probably be us.

Wave anyway.

This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 7:05 AM.