Downtown Batesville will be a festive location Saturday, Dec. 5, as Main Street Batesville celebrates “An Old Fashioned Christmas 2020” throughout the day and then the Batesville Kiwanis Christmas Parade will kick off at 6 p.m. on a longer route than usual.
Main Street Batesville Director Mandi Curtwright (pictured above, left) and Renee’ Martin (right) from the Batesville Kiwanis Club visited with Ken Loggains and Gary Bridgman this morning on White River Now’s Arkansas 103.3 KWOZ about the seasonal fun coming this Saturday.
“An Old Fashioned Christmas” will be celebrated up and down Main Street. Live music from the Southside Madrigals will be performed in Maxfield Park at 1 p.m., and a new brass band, the Batesville Brass Society, will entertain visitors in the Citizens Bank Pocket Park at 5 p.m.
A winter market featuring arts and crafts will also be open. There will be “living window” displays in some Main Street Batesville businesses where visitors can enjoy singers, basketweaving, and quilt-making demonstrations. A scavenger hunt will also be held.
And Santa Claus will be chatting with children from his workshop from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Back in Time Antiques.
Line-up for the evening’s Batesville Kiwanis Christmas Parade will begin at 4 p.m. at Town Plaza, and the parade will start at 6 p.m.
And there will be adherence to all standard COVID-19 protocols.
The parade will be in constant motion due to pandemic guidelines. No participants will be walking in the parade, and hand sanitizing stations will also be placed throughout downtown.
The route, which had to be filed with the state for approval, will be a bit longer this year with floats parading down Main Street, taking a left onto State Street, and then a turn left onto College Street so residents on that route can also enjoy the parade.
“It’s still a ‘go.’ We’ve done the proper paperwork we need to do to try to make this as safe of a parade as we can,” Martin said.
“We just want people to come downtown, and have a safe time,” Curtwright said.
For more details about the Main Street Batesville Christmas fun on Saturday, listen to Gary B.’s interview with Curtwright and Martin below:
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