Samba dancers parade around the Arcata Plaza on Saturday. Credit: Alexander Woodard

This wasn’t your grandma’s Samba Parade. Thousands descended on the Arcata Plaza on Saturday to take in the sites, sounds, smells and tastes of North County Fair. They were greeted by a new incarnation of Samba Parade, the annual spectacle that turns the plaza into a cacophony of drums as scores of dancers saunter, shake and strut by in unison. This year, the parade branched out, welcoming in West African and Afro-Cuban dance and drum groups. Local photographer Alexander Woodard was there for the Journal, and shared the following.

In cased you missed the action and are feeling parade deprived, the quieter — if whackier — All Species Parade kicks off today at 1 p.m.

The first dancers of the parade make their way down Ninth Street at the North County Fair. Credit: Alexander Woodard
Drummers march behind the dancers at the beginning of the parade. Credit: Alexander Woodard
Dancers with little “fruit flies” behind them participating in the Samba parade at the North County Fair. Credit: Alexander Woodard
Afro-Cuban dancers cutting a rug at the parade. Credit: Alexander Woodard
Jugglers from the Humboldt Circus marching in the Samba parade at the North County Fair. Credit: Alexander Woodard
Drum and dance off at the end of the parade route. Credit: Alexander Woodard
A woodworker demonstrates his hand crafted pedal scroll saw for a crowd at the North County Fair. Credit: Alexander Woodard
Propeller hats and bubbles… need we say more? Credit: Alexander Woodard

This article appears in Jaso at the Bat.

Thadeus Greenson is the news editor of the North Coast Journal.

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