SAFFORD — Cinco de Mayo is the fifth of May, but the celebration is going to have wait a couple of days.
The St. Rose of Lima Cinco de Mayo Fiesta will take place Saturday, May 7, starting with the parade down Safford’s Main Street at 10 a.m.
“The parade is one of our oldest parades here in town,” said Graham County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Vance Bryce. “It’s been gone for a few years, but we’re able to work with the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Parish to make it happen again.”
In decades past, parades traveled westward along Main Street, but had changed to moving eastward to allow parade floats to stage behind Graham County Courthouse.
However, due to traffic concerns of parade floats and parade watchers all exiting onto Highway 191 or 8th Street at the same time, the Chamber is trying something new — having the parade travel west on Main Street from 3rd Avenue, around the courthouse, and finishing at the south parking lot for Firth Park/Safford Swimming Pool.
At 11 a.m., the fiesta continues at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, with vendor booths, live music and other entertainment, activities for the whole family, and the food court inside the volunteer hall.
Attendees are asked to bring their own chairs to the event.
