Local schools, businesses and organizations participated in Petaluma’s Annual Butter and Egg Days Parade April 18, drawing more than 1,000 spectators.
The Butter and Eggs Days Festival and Parade is an annual event held since the 1910s to promote Petaluma as the World’s Egg Basket. “With a population of about 6,000 in 1918, Petaluma claimed chicken farms producing 450 million eggs annually. Do the math, and that’s 75,000 eggs per year for every man, woman and child,” according to Visit Petaluma.
This year’s theme, “America’s Birthday — Petaluma Style,” celebrated the nation’s 250th birthday.
The parade, which began at noon, featured schools, government organizations, clubs, businesses and dance groups. Spectators filled the sidewalks along the route. A “Cutest Little Chick Contest” and a Clover Kids Parade consisting of five groups preceded the parade.
Vendors sold food and other items in different areas around the parade’s route. Vendors walked around selling bubbles and stuffed animals. Jessica Guzman, owner of Botanical Nook, which sells cacti, plants and handmade goods, had a booth at the event.
“I actually applied maybe a month ago, on a whim. They put me on a waitlist, so I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to get in’ because it was already full. But two days before the event started, they were like, ‘There’s a spot.’ So it’s a last-minute thing,” Guzman said.
Stephanie Bastianon, 47, represented at the Friends of the Petaluma River booth.
“We came to share information about Friends of the Petaluma River and some of the projects and programs that we’re working on. We like to come out, and it’s a good opportunity for us to talk with people in the community about what’s going on on the river,” she said.
Ananda Twitty, 42, attended the event to watch her daughter perform with the Kenilworth Junior High School’s marching band.
“The scale of it, it’s much bigger than I ever expected,” Twitty said. “Just the amount of people that are down here and the amount of participants in the parade.”
The parade is a celebration of all things small-town Petaluma. “What I like about the Petaluma Butter and Egg Days parade is that it’s all small-town, farmers come from all around, and bands and performers come from all over Sonoma County and probably even further,” Healdsburg resident Mary Ruffatto, 68, said.
Ruffatto stayed to watch The Pulsators, a band that performed after the parade. One moment from the parade that stood out to Ruffatto was a rhinoceros-shaped vehicle that shot flames from its horn.
“I couldn’t believe how hot it was,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine what it was like inside because it was just hot on the street. I had never seen that before.”
Animal-rights activists joined the parade and protested Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry and Clover Sonoma. They carried signs and an inflatable cow costume covered in fake blood.
Volunteer Judy Macer, whose job was to pour beer from a tap, said the event ran smoothly.
“We didn’t have to work as hard as we thought we would, because there were plenty of people to help. So everybody was very nice and well behaved,” Macer said.
Petaluma resident Julia Barufkin, 22, said she loved the whole community getting together and having fun in downtown Petaluma.
“Petaluma means home, and just feeling so lucky to be in the most beautiful place in the world, and I’m pretty well traveled, so that’s a big statement,” she said.
