South Shore Drill Team Won't Perform In Bud Billiken Parade
CHICAGO (CBS) -- One of the most popular performing groups in the annual Bud Billiken Parade will not be on King Drive this year, because of new rules limiting the number of marchers.
Last year, the South Shore Drill Team celebrated its 35th anniversary with 169 drill team members, plus a few dozen parent volunteers and drill team staffers marching alongside.
Drill team administrative director Sara Vlacic said parade organizers told the team they were limiting performance groups to 100 people this year, and that's not acceptable for them, so the drill team has decided not to participate.
"That's for the children, and for getting them excited to go back to school, so we're not going to tell half of them they can't march," she said.
Vlacic said drill team officials did not want to disappoint any of the young people who have worked hard preparing for performances like the Bud Billiken Parade.
So, instead of being in the Bud Billiken Parade, the South Shore Drill Team will perform at the Gary Comer Youth Center in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood – about two miles south of the parade route – from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Afterward, they will travel to far south suburban Momence to march in the Gladiolas Fest Parade in the afternoon.
Vlacic said the drill team will leave Sunday night for Florida to visit and march at Disney World.
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Parade executive director Dr. Mark Sengstacke admitted the participant limits impact the South Shore Drill Team most, since the team is the largest unit that traditionally takes part in the parade, and he said the drill team will be missed.
"It certainly does take away some of the color, the energy, the excitement. They are certainly one of the top units in the parade," he said.
Sengstacke said parade organizers are trying to keep down parade costs this year for the Chicago Defender Charities and the City of Chicago, and that the best way to do that is to shorten the parade.
That has meant reducing the number of parade entries to 175 from about 300 last year.
This year, the parade will begin an hour earlier – at 9 a.m. Saturday – and organizers hope it will be much shorter than in the past. Sengstacke said it has not been unusual in past years for the Bud Billiken Parade to stretch over five to six hours.
The parade begins at 39th and King Drive and moves south along King Drive to Ellsworth Drive, disbanding in Washington Park, for a big picnic.
