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Sunday, November 30, 1997

Holiday River parade draws estimated 100,000

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- More than 100,000 spectators kicked off the holiday season at the River Walk Holiday Parade, marveling at trees dotted with 80,000 twinkling lights, 30 illuminated floats topped with Santas and hundreds of carolers.

Showcasing the theme "Holiday Traditions," the shimmering flotilla impressed Gina Ward, 41, who traveled from Arlington with her mother and friends.

"We're a sucker for lights," she said. "It's kind of like Macy's on water."

The river parade passed Friday in front of the Arneson River Theater in La Villita, where it was televised live to more than 200,000 households throughout Central Texas.

The festival was also to be shown in a delayed broadcast in Dallas, Houston, Corpus Christi, Austin, Harlingen, WacoCollege Station and Midland-Odessa at various times during the weekend.

The evening began at 7 p.m., when city officials pulled the switch to turn on 80,000 glittering lights cascading from tall cypress trees along the 1.5-mile floating procession route.

Sam Gorena, executive director of the Paseo del Rio Association, which produces the annual parade, said the lights were donated by the Gunn family of auto dealerships and bought from a supplier in China.

"San Antonio was the largest consumer of C-7 twinkling lights in North America," Gorena said.

Assembling the lights was no easy task -- more than 150 volunteers assembled them at a party.

The city of San Antonio provided the labor to place the stringers in the trees. It took two months to put up the lights, which will burn nightly until Jan. 1.

Ten-year-old Matthew Martinez had been eagerly looking forward to his first holiday river parade. Stretched out on the third-floor balcony of the Hard Rock Cafe, the fourth-grader watched the first three floats come around the bend.

But by the time the San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet float -- winner of "best of show" -- floated by, he was fast asleep.

Sheepishly, his mother, Sylvia, explained that she took her son holiday shopping before sunup. She spent $311 in 15 minutes at Toys R Us, although it took 2 hours to check out.

"He might as well have been home with the baby sitter," she said.