Annual parade celebrates one of Canada's oldest Black communities

Hundreds of people set up chairs in driveways and piled into cars and trucks to kick off the annual North Preston Day parade inone of Canada's oldest and largest Black communitiesSaturday morning.

The event in North Preston, N.S., has been a community favouritesince the first parade in 2007, but it was cancelled last summer because of the pandemic.

One of the event's organizers, Vivian Cain, said even though they had to make some changes this year to be more COVID-friendly like not havinga bouncy castle, or a king and queen pageant it'smore important than ever tocometogether to celebrate the community.

"Everybody is looking forward to it, especially the kids," said FendiGlasgow from the viewing party in her driveway.

While there may not have been a bouncy castle, children squealed and clapped as cars and motorcycles drove by with streamers and balloons flapping in the wind.

Community members taking part in the parade handed out bags of candy and toys to the kids lining the street.

Musicpoured out of rolled-down windows, and the sounds of honking horns and revving engines filled the air for more than an hour.

"It feels good. It feels really really good to be able to be among family and friends, it's freedom," she said. "So we're thankful, and we're blessed, for sure."

For Grace Sheppard, it was the first time seeing the parade despite having lived in the community a long time.

"I'm just so excited, oh wow," she said,adding she thinks the event is a success even withscaled-back festivities.

By the time the line of vehicles made its way through the neighbourhood and toward the end of the route, Sheppard had moved from watching on the sidelines to riding in one of the parade vehicles, smiling and waving as she passed friends and neighbours.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.You can read more stories here.

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