K-Days taking it to the streets with Friday parade to kick off summer festival

Everybody loves a parade. Except for the guy who drives his car downtown and gets stuck behind the marching band.

Edmonton's annual 10-day summer fair kicks off Friday morning with the K-Days Parade, which will take over downtown with more than 100 floats, giant balloons, antique cars, performers and road closures.

"Those travelling downtown should plan ahead and give themselves extra time on parade day," says a city news release, noting the parade will exacerbate the construction-related road and sidewalk closures downtown.

The parade will start at 10 a.m. at Jasper Avenue and 108th Street. It will head east on Jasper to 101st Street, then head north to 103rd Avenue before hitting the homestretch, travelling west along 103rd Avenue.

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Although the parade starts at 10 a.m., the impact on traffic will begin hours earlier.

At 6:30 a.m., the entire assembly area bounded by Jasper and 104th avenues and 105th to 108th streets will be closed to vehicles. The closure will be in effect until 1:30 p.m.

From 8:30 a.m. through 12:30 p.m., roads along the parade route will be closed includingJasper Avenue, 101st Street and 103rd Avenue.

Vehicles travelling into downtown can use 100th, 103A and 104th Avenue as well as 109th Street.

A number of Edmonton Transit bus routes will be affected by detours beginning at 6 a.m. and lasting until the parade has cleared, the city says in its news release.

The K-Days grounds at Northlands open daily at noon, starting on Friday. The city has increased its transit service to the fair to ensure more frequent service to and from the grounds.

Construction work on the 66th Street Tunnel will be suspended to ensure the Capital Line LRT can operate at regular weekday frequency running every five to 10 minutes between 5 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Bus routes 8, 577 and 591 will also see stepped up operations from mid-day until late night.