Kingsville's drive-thru Santa Claus Parade was a victim of its own success over the weekend.
A line up began forming for the parade at Kingsville District High School on Main Street around 6 p.m. Saturday and stretched more than 7 km down County Road 20 to Albuna Townline at one point.
Windsor Parade Corporation's Maggie Durocher says it was an amazing turnout and people she spoke to had fun. She hopes everyone understands line-ups are unavoidable when more than 1,000 vehicles show up in one place.
"We had people coming in other directions, but we were able to spin things quite quickly and create another area for people to line up so that we could get them into the high school parking lot, so that worked out," she says. "At the end we extended the parade an extra hour; we may have turned away about 40 people."
Durocher says it's clear there's still a demand to see Santa during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The line up at one point was down to Albuna Townline from the high school and they were backed up on to Hwy. 3," she says. "That kind of turn out speaks to the fact that people are looking for something."
She tells AM800 News organizers are already looking at ways to ease line-ups at future events.
"More police presence outside the parade area, what we can do for the pinch points," she says. "As well as how we can work to direct traffic to maybe one or two ways to get to the site so that we can help with some of those lines."
The town apologized for a miscommunication on the entry point to the parade posted to its website that contributed to Saturday's traffic issues.
Durocher says the next Windsor Parade Corporation drive-thru event will be staged at the Libro Centre in Amherstburg on Nov. 28 at 6 p.m.
Detailed instructions on how and where to enter the parade will be posted at www.windsorparade.org.