On April 1, a unicorn in sunglasses might march past a senior center while a ukulele ensemble strums nearby. A woman in a peacock headdress might blow bubbles toward clapping seniors in tiaras. Someone in a tutu might be twirling a hula hoop like their life depends on it.
No, this is not a description of a patient experience at one of Colorado’s newly regulated psilocybin healing centers. Rather, this is what happens every year on the first of April. It’s Longmont’s most delightfully unhinged annual parade, and all revelers need to join is a costume and a willingness to embrace the silly.
BJ Carson, dressed in the inflatable unicorn costume, right, dances down Longs Peak Avenue during the Lefthand Artist Group’s April Fool’s Day Parade in Longmont last year. The parade returns Tuesday. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer)
The Left Hand Artist Group’s Absolutely Absurd April Fool’s Day Parade is Longmont’s most delightfully disorganized tradition. In its fifth year, the sidewalk spectacle returns Tuesday to the streets for another loop of joyful chaos. Costumes are optional, but strongly encouraged.
The event was launched as a lighthearted post-pandemic release, but it’s grown into a local favorite event that’s proudly unsanctioned and thoroughly beloved.
“The first year we did it, we had this one couple,” organizer Amy Heneghan said, “they meekly got out of their car and they were wearing these homemade dinosaur costumes. They said, ‘We weren’t sure if this was a prank — like an April Fool’s joke — but then we found people and were so excited that it was actually real, that we are doing this parade.’”
The parade kicks off at 6:18 p.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of the Longmont Senior Center, 910 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont, where participants are asked to gather at 5:47 p.m. The route is short and sweet, sidewalk-only, looping past two nearby senior living facilities where residents are known to cheer from lawn chairs and walkers, and waving the occasional bubble wand.
There’s no registration, no entry fee and no theme beyond “the more outlandish, the better,” Heneghan said. Kazoos, boas, ribbon wands and bubbles are all welcome additions to the mix.
Jude Roosen, right, plays the trombone as he and others march down Main Street during the Lefthand Artist Group’s April Fool’s Day Parade in Longmont in 2024. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer)
“You don’t need to sign up,” Heneghan said. “Just show up. Wear something ridiculous if you feel like it.”
Also acceptable: showing up in normal clothes and immediately being handed a feathered mask, a pool noodle or a second-hand tiara. It’s that kind of parade.
The idea came to Heneghan in 2021, inspired by a similar “Fool’s Parade” her sister used to attend in Northern California. At the time, Longmont — like the rest of the world — was still navigating the strange in-between space of COVID-19 recovery. Paradegoers wore masks and carried pool noodles to maintain distance, and the whole thing ended with a spontaneous “Battle Royale” in the park — neighbors gently whacking each other with foam and laughing for what felt like the first time in a while.
“People just needed permission to laugh again,” she said. “To come outside and be together, even in the weirdest way.”
Since then, the parade has grown in its own quiet, chaotic way, now backed by the Left Hand Artist Group (LHAG), a grassroots collective that’s been shaping Longmont’s creative culture since 2013. The group was founded by artist Don Wilson, who once rescued boxes of beer labels from Left Hand Brewing’s dumpster and used them for the group’s annual flagship fundraiser — Left Hand Artist Group Label Show, where members create original art from the labels. LHAG operates without hierarchy or dues. Anyone can join. Artists meet monthly, share work and hang it in rotation at six venues around town, including breweries and cafés.
“We’re a creative collective dedicated to community through art, music and friendship,” LHAG president Linda Cranston said. “We support visual artists and musicians by curating shows at local spots that give us wall space, and we don’t charge anything. We’re not juried — we accept beginners, intermediates, advanced artists. It’s really just about bringing people together. And we like to keep things pretty casual.”
Participants march down Pratt Street during the Lefthand Artist Group’s April Fool’s Day Parade in Longmont on April 1, 2024. Around 50 costume clad participants marched from Roosevelt park singing, dancing, waving to people in vehicles and blowing bubbles along the route. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer)
The parade is one of those community-driven projects — creative expression at its most unscripted. But perhaps the most meaningful part of the route is the stretch that loops past two senior living facilities.
That decision was intentional from the beginning.
“Those folks were hit especially hard during COVID,” Heneghan said. “No visitors, a lot of isolation and too many losses. We thought — let’s go to them.”
Each year, residents come out to watch. Some sit bundled in chairs, others stand with walkers or bang pots and pans as the parade passes by. Group members drop off props in advance — feather boas, funny sunglasses, paper crowns — to make sure everyone has something festive to wear, even if they’re just watching from the sidewalk.
“Even if they can’t march, we want them to feel part of it,” said longtime member Karen Boehme. “They expect us now. And that feels really good.”
There’s no official dress code for paradegoers, but that hasn’t stopped people from showing up in flower hats made from baby bath pillows, unicorn onesies or disco-era thrift finds. Over the years, the parade has included a cockatoo, a stilt walker, spontaneous drum circles and a ukulele ensemble that sometimes joins in — depending on the weather.
“It’s different every year,” Heneghan said. “But it’s always colorful. Always weird. Always joyful.”
Aprylisa Snyder smiles as she marches along Longs Peak Avenue during the Lefthand Artist Group’s April Fool’s Day Parade in Longmont last year. The annual parade returns to the streets on Tuesday. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer)
The whole thing stays on the sidewalk. There are no floats, no barricades and no permits.
“One year a police officer called to ask, ‘Is this parade real?’” Heneghan said. “We told her it was, and she said we were probably fine. I think she said she might send someone out just for presence — but I’m not sure if they ever showed up.”
Boehme said that low-key approach to the parade is part of the charm.
“We like that it’s informal,” she said. “It just happens. And somehow, that makes it more fun.”
It may not be Longmont’s biggest parade — and it certainly isn’t the most organized — but what the April Fool’s Day Parade lacks in structure, it more than makes up for in character. It’s not designed to be flashy or flawless. It’s designed to show up, surprise people and make them smile.
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“It might be the shortest, silliest parade in Longmont,” Cranston said. “But it’s probably the most memorable.”
Learn more about the event at bit.ly/AprilFoolsDayParade.
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Linda Cranston of the LHAG leads the way during its Absurd April Fool’s Day Parade in Longmont on April 1, 2022. (Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)
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Patty Fabian makes an impressive peacock in the Left Hand Artists Group’s Absurd April Fool’s Day Parade in Longmont on April 1, 2022. (Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)
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Residents at Saint Vrain Senior Manor watch the Absurd April Fool’s Day Parade on April 1, 2022. (Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)
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The Left Hand Artist’s Group hosted its annual Absurd April Fool’s Day Parade on April 1, 2022. (Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)
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Mike Bentley pumps out bubbles during the 2022 Absurd April Fool’s Day Parade. (Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)
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Linda Cranston of the LHAG leads the way during its Absurd April Fool’s Day Parade in Longmont on April 1, 2022. (Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)
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