2021 Pasadena Doo Dah Parade postponed

Hey SoCal can report that the 2021 Pasadena Doo Dah parade has been postponed until next year.

“Due to current health guidelines, the Pasadena Doo Dah Parade will be postponed until next year. While many people are disappointed and will miss this year’s event, the unique ‘Other Parade’ will return in full color in 2022,” Light Bringer Project Managing Director Patricia Hurley said in a release Wednesday.

“We couldn’t keep up with the rules and regs of a ‘mega’ event for Doo Dah this time around. I’m sure you’re going to see some activity crop up from the ground up! There will be SOME-thing happening, hard to put a plug on that kind of energy! We will see :),” Hurley told Hey SoCal in an email Wednesday morning.

The self-proclaimed “twisted sister” of the more traditional Rose Parade, the Doo Dah Parade was first conceived by several friends, including Peter Apanel, Ted Wright, Charles “Skip” Finnell, Corky Peterson, and Richard Caputo, sitting in a bar called Chromos in Pasadena in 1978, with input from Alice McIntosh of The Red Shoes Dancewear store next door.

In 1978, Jan. 1 fell on a Sunday, but the Rose Parade, which typically takes place the first day of the year, has a policy that the parade is never to be held on a Sunday. So, the Doo Dah founders took advantage of the opportunity to have an alternate parade on Jan. 1 that year.