San Juan Capistrano, Calif. – The 55th Swallows Day Parade and Mercado Street Fair will take place in downtown San Juan Capistrano on Saturday, March 23, 2013 beginning at 11:00 a.m. Fiesta de las Golondrinas – meaning Festival of the Swallows – activities pay tribute to the annual return of the swallows and San Juan Capistrano’s Spanish, western and Juaneno Indian heritage. Longtime San Juan Capistrano resident and civic leader Joe Soto is this year’s grand marshal.
The Mercado Street Fair is held in Historic Town Center Park featuring over 100 vendor booths, live music, activities for children and a wide variety of food and drinks.
One of the nation’s largest non-motorized parades, the Swallows Day Parade will feature over 130 parade entries including approximately 600 horses, high school and military marching bands, floats, folkloric dancers, historical reenactments and dozens of community groups. According to the California Show Horse Association, the Swallows Day Parade is the largest equine judged event in California. Highlights include the United States Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard, The Housewives of the Old West and Percheron draft horses pulling a 1902 American Steam Fire Engine.
The parade begins at Ortega Highway and Del Obispo Street and continues along Camino Capistrano. An annual Pancake Breakfast is held at the Women’s Club located at 31442 El Horno St from 6:00 – 10:30 a.m. Another major parade-day attraction is the Mercado Street Fair with live music, dozens of food booths and a variety of vendors at the historic Town Center Park off of El Camino Real and Ortega Highway from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Alcohol will not be sold in the Mercado Street Fair this year.
The Fiesta Association will host a Shuttle Bus from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with pickups at Endevco and Fluid Master along Rancho Viejo Road between Ortega Hwy and Junipero Serra. Roundtrip fee is $2.00 for adults and kids under 10 free.
Other upcoming Fiesta Association events include:
Fiesta Grande
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
The Swallow’s Inn
Hoos’Gow Day
Friday, March 22, 2013
9:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Various Locations Throughout San Juan Capistrano
For more information about the Swallows Day Parade or Fiesta de las Golondrinas events, call 949.493.1976 or visit www.swallowsparade.org.
About the Fiesta de las Golondrinas and the San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association
The Fiesta de Las Golondrinas is tied to the legendary return of the swallows to the Mission San Juan Capistrano on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19th. The square-tailed cliff swallows spend the summer in San Juan Capistrano and leave in late October to travel 6000 miles for a winter in Goya, Argentina.
The San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association is an all-volunteer organization that manages and produces the annual Swallows Day Parade and other Fiesta de las Golondrinas events throughout the year. A nonprofit, nonpolitical organization, the Fiesta Association is led by a board of directors and is entirely self-funded through donations and various fundraising activities.
Barbara Kimler
San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association Publicity
