New route takes K-W Oktoberfest parade up Weber Street

The Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest parade will be going straight up Weber Street this Thanksgiving Monday.

In previous years, the route went down King Street, then turned at Victoria Street and then again onto Weber Street. The festival's acting executive director Alfred Lowrick said the change was made to avoid LRT infrastructure.

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"We just found it was far too difficult to make that transition on Victoria and King, just because of the LRT lines, the overhead lines, it just made sense to go down Weber," Lowrick said.

"There's more availability of space and staging area on Frederick Street," he noted, and said the staging of all the floats, bands, balloons and entertainers will take place along Frederick all the way to Frederick Mall.

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"It's a big staging process," he said.

The parade on Oct. 9 will start at 8:30 a.m. at the corner of Weber Street and Frederick Street in downtown Kitchener.

It will finish at Weber Street and Bridgeport Road in Waterloo.