02/21/2026
Seafair Security:
I did a post on Facebook for a callout for volunteers to drive convertibles for the VIPs in the Seafair Torchlight Parade, this week. John Kamm, a member of our Seafair Car Team, forwarded me a message you sent to him about the parade. John says you are veterans of Torchlight and might have some volunteers. As to your question about downtown. For decades the Torchlight Parade route was down 4th Ave right in the center of downtown Seattle. Yes, on that route there has been some "Police Activity" in the past, in some parts but usually between 2:00 AM and sunrise. A couple of years ago a few of my older volunteer drivers had the same concern as you, so I brought it up with Seafair staff to find a way to make drivers more comfortable. What staff did was assign uniformed Police officers at each intersection all along the whole parade route and put plain clothed Police Officers mid-block between each intersection. So, the safety of the whole parade route is pretty much covered now. Honestly, I was very impressed with Seafair staff taking it to that level to make everyone feel safe. On top of that, last year we have moved the parade route from 4th Ave over to the new parade route on the waterfront on Alaskan Way. And we went back to an evening parade (half the parade in the dark). The water, the sunset, lights along the waterfront docks, made it absolutely beautiful!!! Also, the waterfront has been totally rebuilt, brand new and a major tourist trap, and I never hear about crime or Police activity there. Around 15 years ago I heard they had a problem with a homeless guy sleeping in a Porta Potty, but that was the worst. With those two things, your drivers can feel pretty safe.
I understand that you and your club are over on the peninsula so ferry travel would need to be considered. I can arrange to have your drivers in the first half of the parade so they can catch their ferry back home. Cherry on top of the cake is, the parade route ends one block from the Ferry Terminal entrance so all you have to do is take a right turn and you're already in the ferry line.
I won't have a firm final exact number of staff's request for cars until mid-June or early July. One year it was low as 15 and another year they hit us with a last-minute request for 37 cars, and we were in a panic scramble to fill the spots. So, every year, including this year we start with a ballpark goal of 24 convertibles and 3 to 5 spare convertibles in case of breakdowns. As of today, we have 15 convertibles confirmed for the parade.
The parade is Saturday July 25th. The parade starts at 7:30 PM and ends at 10:30 PM. Official Seafair staging for the parade starts one hour before parade start. Because there is no room to shuffle cars at Seafair staging, we have all the parade cars meet a couple hours before that in Magnolia (parking lot). There we have a meet & greet for the drivers for an hour, then a driver's meeting going over procedures, and then we line up all the cars in exact correct parade order and convoy that way to Seafair staging.
I hope this gives you the information that you need and I would love to hear back from you on your thoughts about the Torchlight Parade.
Randall Dickey
Seafair Chairman
Seafair Car Team
