Canton Labor Day Parade

HAYWOOD COUNTY GOP
NEEDS VOLUNTEERS FOR OUR CANTON LABOR DAY PARADE ENTRY

If you're interested in volunteering for this event or learning about other volunteer opportunities:
please send an email to [email protected]

Monday, September 6th:
114th Labor Day Parade of Remembrance & Resilience

10-11:30am//Labor Day Parade, Downtown Canton

PLEASE NOTE ROUTE CHANGE: 
Blackwell Drive through Main Street, back down Park Street and ending at Blackwell Drive

Just 4 days after Canton officials announced they had finalized plans for the 114th Canton Labor Day Festival, Tropical Storm Fred hit hard.

Devastating damage to Canton and surrounding areas has led town leaders to cancel the Labor Day festival for the second straight year -- in 2020 due to the pandemic and this year, due to flooding damage. Cancellation includes everything (concerts, food trucks, craft vendors, air dogs, etc.). 

The Labor Day parade, on Monday, Sept. 6, will still go on as scheduled. It will start at 10 a.m.

“I think it's necessary,” said Canton resident Ezra Messer. “We need something to get hope in everyone after the flood." And that's the main consensus among those in the hardworking mill town. “With all the devastation, we definitely need something like a light, a beacon of hope,” he said.

It is being called the 114th Labor Day Parade of Remembrance and Resilience. Town leaders said flood damage has caused a shift in the parade route, which will be from Blackwell Drive through Main Street, back down Park Street and ending at Blackwell Drive.

Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers said the parade will be a celebration of the resilience of the community to recover.

"I ask anyone listening come to Canton on Labor Day, see this parade because for those few hours we're going to celebrate the absolute best of our community that has been displayed the last week," Smathers said.

“We're going to celebrate our first responders, our small businesses -- the community,” said Mayor Zeb Smathers.