Sebastopol’s Apple Blossom Parade hits 80 this weekend, and the Chamber went and themed the whole thing “Blossoms of Oz.” Ruby slippers, yellow brick road, the works. Saturday morning you’ll have witches on flatbeds, Munchkins on Main Street and, if the Humane Society of Sonoma County’s plans hold, a small pack of adoptable shelter dogs walking the route between 10 a.m. and noon. Real-life Totos looking for forever homes. That’s the picture nobody else is running with.
The Chamber has put on this parade every year since 1947 — it’s their main fundraiser — and the 80th edition is the kind of small-town event that quietly pulls 14,000 people into a town of 7,500 without anyone losing their mind. There’s a Friday night warm-up at Ives Park, 6 to 9 p.m., free to wander into. Saturday’s the parade down Main, then the festival kicks open at Ives at 11 a.m. and runs to 6 p.m., same hours Sunday. Gate’s $18, $15 if you’re a senior or student, $30 for both days. Music skews local and a little ridiculous in the best way: David Luning and the Peacetown All-Stars on Saturday, Poor Man’s Whiskey on Sunday, plus a Fleetwood Mac tribute act called Fleetwood Macramé that I refuse to not mention. Cynthi Stefanoni — she started the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival — is grand marshal.
If you’re driving anywhere near downtown Saturday, the city posted the closure map April 21. Petaluma Avenue shuts entirely from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Main Street and most side streets between Eddie Lane and Palm Avenue close at 9:45 a.m. and reopen around 1 p.m. Plan accordingly or just walk in.
The wider story is just that this is what Sebastopol does well — a 79-year-old chamber fundraiser that this year happens to look like an L. Frank Baum fever dream, with shelter mutts, a film-festival founder and a macramé-themed cover band rolling down the same stretch of asphalt. Fun, hyperlocal, and not the angle anybody else is leading with.
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