Organizers are inviting participation of anyone wishing to promote walking, bicycling, skating, or any other human-powered form of transportation. Participants are encouraged to design floats, wear colorful costumes, and display human-powered vehicles of innovative, unusual, or vintage designs. Anything goes as long as itıs human-powered. (The one exception to this rule applies to disabled citizens who are unable to propel themselves. These people will be permitted to use motorized wheelchairs.)

Parade and Festival History
The history of the SpokesnFolks Parade goes back to the Spring of 1997, when a group of bicyclists held a ³Critical Mass² bike ride to protest lack of accomodation for bicycles in traffic engineering. Ten riders received citations at the end of the ride for obstructing traffic, which they contested in Municipal Court. Then-judge Edmund Nix found the riders guilty and sentenced them to ³do something creative to promote your cause.² Among his suggestions were ³parades and demonstrations­legal demonstrations,² and the SpokesnFolks Parade was born.

Last yearıs SpokesnFolks Parade attracted nearly 100 people on a rainy fall afternoon. There were pedestrians, baby strollers, wagons, bicycles, tricycles, unicycles, rollerblades, skateboards, three-wheeled bicycles, jugglers, musicians, percussionists, clowns, goofballs, kids, floats and displays, and even a lot of normal people.
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SpokesnFolks Parade Mission
The purpose of the SpokesnFolks Parade is to promote and celebrate all forms of human-powered transportation. Among the advantages of human-powered transportation are freedom from the economic burdens of motorized transportation, improved physical and emotional well-being, reduced noise and pollution, and traffic structures that are gentler on the land and its citizens. Neighborhoods are brought closer together as people increasingly interact face-to-face, rather than from within the shells of their cars. In other words, relying on our own power makes us a richer, healthier, happier people living in cleaner, quieter, friendlier neighborhoods.
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Participation and Prizes
Members of the public are invited to participate in the SpokesnFolks Parade. Registration is free, and local businesses are providing ³door prizes² for randomly selected registrants. In addition, there will be prizes for best costume and best float for both adults and children. Prizes will also be awarded for most interesting classic vehicle, most innovative design, most outrageous political statement, and several other categories. Activists, artists, musicians, percussionists, neighborhood folks, and kids of all ages are encouraged to attend.
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Parade Route
This event coincides with the first day of the Wisconsin Governorıs Bicycle Conference at the La Crosse Center. A route has been chosen that passes by the conference site.

Proceeding south on 5th, they will turn right on Jay, right on 4th, and left on Pearl, following Pearl Street through downtown to the La Crosse Center entrance at 2nd and Pearl. The parade will return to Cameron Park by turning left on 2nd, following 2nd to King Street, and proceeding on King Street to the park.

The remainder of the afternoon will be a festival in Cameron Park, featuring performances by popular local musicians, information on human-powered transportation and related issues, and a community pot-luck picnic.
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