CONCORD ó The 81st Concord Christmas Parade will kick off the holiday season this weekend.
One of the oldest Christmas parades in the state, the event starts at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on Church Street North at Lake Concord Road. The parade ends at Union Street South at Corbin Avenue.
The 2.2-mile event will feature more than 150 entries, including 10 marching bands and 20 professional floats.
Dr. Hector H. Henry will serve as parade marshal.
Henry, 70, recently returned from Iraq, completing his fourth overseas tour of duty.
A colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps, Henry was medical commander of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He served in Operation Iran Freedom in 2006 and in both the Gulf and Vietnam wars.
A member of the Concord City Council, Henry is a urologist at CMC-NorthEast. The hospital is sponsoring the parade, and the city is sponsoring the marching bands.
His wife, Marjorie Benbow, directs the N.C. Biotech Center, a nonprofit arm of the N.C. Department of Commerce.
Cabarrus Events Association produces and stages the parade with the help of many volunteers. The association will post the parade line-up at www.cabarrusevents.org.
Organizers estimate that more than 30,000 people watch the parade every year.