McALLEN — While the much-touted McAllen Holiday Parade nears, so does another of the city’s beloved annual holiday events — Christmas in the Park.
City officials unveiled details of the Christmas in the Park as well as important logistical information for the holiday parade during a news conference Monday morning.
Christmas in the Park — an event that features food, artisan vendors, a carnival, photo opportunities, giveaways and free concerts — will take place on Dec. 2 from 5 to 11 p.m. and on Dec. 3 from noon to 11 p.m.
The concerts will feature at least nine musical performers throughout both nights. Grammy Award-winning Tejano band Solido will headline Friday night while the self-described original Tex-Mex Honky Tonk band from Fort Worth — the Tejas Brothers — will headline on Saturday.
Christmas in the Park will be held at Municipal Park which is located at 1921 N. Bicentennial Blvd., next to McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium. Entry will be free of charge.
The McAllen Holiday Parade will also take place on Dec. 3 and while a fun time is to be anticipated, so too are logistical headaches for people driving near the parade route that day.
“We are going to be closing a lot of the roads along the parade route and also adjacent to the parade route,” said Marlen Garza, director of McAllen Traffic Operations. “We have to do this in order to be able to get the road ready for the parade route and have those balloons and all the floats coming through.”
On Friday, Dec. 2, the city will begin with minor closures of Tamarack and Quince Avenue. Then, at 5 a.m. on Dec. 3, they will start closing off Bicentennial Boulevard between La Vista Avenue and Pecan Boulevard.
“This is going to be our first section at 5 a.m. to start moving our signal polls, getting the Vuelta Zone ready,” Garza said.
Next, at 10 a.m., they will close another section of the street between Pecan and Hackberry.
The next closure will be at noon. At that time, the next section of Bicentennial between Hackberry and Business 83 will be closed off.
“So we will have all of Bicentennial closed with the exception of the east/west streets of Pecan and Business 83 before noon,” Garza said. “This is to get the Bicentennial parade route ready, as I mentioned, with the signal polls out of the way for all the balloons.”
Then at 1 p.m., east/west traffic on Pecan Boulevard and Business 83 will be closed off between 23rd and 16th Street.
At 3 p.m. will be the last and final closure — 23rd Street and the remainder of Bicentennial Boulevard to all southbound traffic.
Information on the road closures will be available at McAllenHolidayParade.com
Parking will be available at South Texas College’s Cooper Center for the Performing Arts, located on the corner of Pecan Boulevard and 29th Street.
From there, Metro McAllen will be offering free shuttle service to the event site from noon to midnight on the day of the parade.
“Buses will run approximately every five to 10 minutes so your wait time will be very minimal,” said Robert De Leon with Metro McAllen. “Buses will also be ADA accessible and we ask everybody to give themselves plenty of time the day of the event.”
He added that collapsible strollers and folding chairs will be allowed on board.
Additionally, the city announced another star athlete is joining the parade — former soccer player Vicente Matias Vuoso.
Born in Argentina, he began his professional career with Independiente in the Primera Division of Argentina and later played in Mexico, playing for the Mexican national team from 2008 to 2015.
