VALLEJO – The annual Mad Hatter Festival and Parade will return to downtown Vallejo this December, and once again the eclectic showcase of Vallejo’s creativity will feature an accomplished Vallejo native as its grand marshal. Only this year there will be two.
Women of Wrestling (WOW) champions the Tonga Twins, Kona and Kaoz, are this year’s grand marshals. The twins were born in Vallejo to immigrant parents and won the Women in Wrestling Tag Team Championship in June.
“We both were very happy and honored to have been chosen to be the Grand Marshals for the city we were born and raised in - Vallejo,” the Tonga Twins said in a statement to the Vallejo Sun. “Not only do we represent our culture, we also represent our city of Vallejo in everything we do at Women of Wrestling (WOW)!” Kona has a special wrestling move dedicated to Vallejo.”
Mad Hatter organizer Frank Malifrando said that from the very first parade, he selected a Grand Marshall from Vallejo who had achieved success on a national level. “We have people of high caliber that love Vallejo and are from here,” Malifrando said. “I don't know how much of an influence it is, but I know that it puts us on the map with successes from the city.”
The first Grand Marshall was Vallejo native and Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Natalie Coughlin. Past Grand Marshals include hip-hop artist DL da ARSUN, singer H.E.R, Danny Thomas of Con Funk Shun, and Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest champion Joey “Jaws” Chestnut.
“Part of the whole Hatter thing is to mix it up so that everyone feels included and everyone feels inspired,” Malifrando said. “I know the population as opposed to other people coming in and putting on events like Maker Faire, and others that wonder why they're not getting the general population. It's because they don't know the people and they're not catering to them.”
The festival will begin at noon on Dec. 2 with the Queen's Court Tea Party on Georgia Street next to the farmers' market. The main festival will kick off at 2 p.m. at Unity Plaza in front of the John F. Kennedy Library, followed by a parade down Georgia Street that ends at the tree lighting ceremony at Martin Luther King Jr. Park.
Live bands, costumed characters, food and hot chocolate vendors, steampunk art installations and kids’ activities will fill the plaza and surrounding streets.
The parade will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the intersection of Georgia Street and Sonoma Boulevard, led by The Vallejo Peace Project Dancers and featuring Lisa Guiterrez-Wilson as the Grinch.
Marching bands, community groups, parade floats and dance troupes will stomp, twirl and roll down Georgia Street toward the waterfront.
Santa’s sleigh will be piloted by Thomas Bilbo, who has been Santa in the parade since 2011. “We have over 14 Zany Elves that pass out candy, as well as act as safety monitors to make sure kids don’t run out to the sleigh,” Bilbo said. The sleigh is a creation of Vallejo-based Obtainium Works and is equipped with “snow engines” that Bilbo says helps push it faster.
As the sun sets the parade will brighten, with fire dancers and lighted and flaming steampunk art cars and contraptions.
The illuminated features in the latter part of the parade include the “Golden Mean,” a snail car with flaming tentacles, the Rhino Redemption that shoots flames from its horn, the fire breathing Dragon Wagon, Obtainium Works’ Magic Lamp and the Flaming Lotus Girls’ Gnome Mobile.
The “Airpusher” art car, crafted in the style of a Victorian sailing ship and rigged with a dazzling internally lit Zeppelin, will serve as the stage for closing tree lighting ceremony at Martin Luther King Park behind City Hall at 6 p.m.
The tree lighting ceremony will conclude in time for revelers to amble down to the waterfront to watch the Vallejo Yacht Club’s lighted boat parade that starts at 6:30 p.m.
Good vantage points for dining while watching the Lighted Boat Parade will be the Mare Island Brewery Taproom and the Bay Hibachi Express (formerly Vic’s Wheelhouse.)
It now appears unlikely that Manny’s Steakhouse will be open in time for the parade at the former site of the Front Room restaurant, which has a great view of the water. Manny’s representative Brandon Barrett spoke at the November 28 City Council meeting to request help dealing with hurdles placed by the Solano County Health department that are preventing the restaurant from opening.
There will be no beer garden this year, but the downtown restaurants — Bambino’s, Provisions and the Mare Island Brewery Taproom — that did not exist during the early years will make up for that. “They’re all happy with Hatter, because the restaurants are packed,” Malifrando said.
Vallejo was in a dark place when Malifrando and several friends started the Mad Hatter Holiday festival in 2010. Vallejo had declared bankruptcy in May 2008 and didn’t emerge from it until August 2011. “Morale was down and people were upset,” Malifrando said. “There was nothing going on in Vallejo. People were losing their houses. The city had absolutely no money. There was nothing happening.”
The city initially was not supportive, according to Malifrando. “The city charged me for everything, for permits, you name it. I had to go through everything and pay for everything.”
It wasn’t until the fourth or fifth year of the festival that the city cut the event some slack, when then-City Manager Dan Keen attended, according to Malifrando. “He said ‘This is really, really good, so we should be supporting you, because, how do you do it?’”
The Mad Hatter Holiday Parade is now recognized as one of the city’s four annual “Signature Events” that was codified for city support on June 11.
But even with the city waiving some of the fees, the free-to-the-public event is expensive to produce. Event sponsors include big names like State Farm Insurance and local businesses like Napa River Realty and the School of Chinese Martial Arts.
Malifrando worked hard to promote the event in the early years, noting that the majority of the population hangs out on the east side of town. “You don't have 5,000 people walking downtown like you do in San Francisco, or in Concord in the square where you have 19 restaurants,” he said. “It's a challenge."
Editor's note: This story has been updated with the Queen's Court starting time and new information about the Manny's Steakhouse opening date.
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