Tonight, Downtown Indiana will kick off the Holiday season as the First Commonwealth Bank “It’s A Wonderful Life Festival” starts with activities through the downtown area.
Activities get underway at 5:00 PM at IRMC Park on Seventh Street, with a change this year in the order of events. This year, the tree-lighting ceremony will happen at 6:15 PM in front of the 32-foot Christmas Tree at IRMC Park.
Along with activities in IRMC Park, the 7th Street Marketry will host several activities from ICTC Students, and some Downtown Indiana businesses will also have some items to hand out.
The parade will start at it’s normal time of 7:00 PM, and this year, parade officials say that candy will not be allowed to be thrown to children from the parade floats. Indiana Borough Police Chief Justin Schawl said that this is for the safety of the children.
Chief Schawl also recommends that everyone arrive early for the festivities and have some patience when going around town. He also recommends that after the tree lighting ceremony, everyone spread out along the route to prevent blocking the parade route and making room for everyone. The parade will start at 11th and Philadelphia Streets and head east on Philadelphia Street to 5th. Santa will be on hand to mingle with guests in IRMC Park after the parade.
There will be some parking restrictions in place, but the Indiana Parking Garage will offer a special event rate of $5 to park at the parking garage. It will be a cash-only rate, and you have to leave the parking garage by midnight. Space is limited and the rate will be available until the garage is full.
