Lakefest Boating Parade, contest grows bigger

The Waseca Lakefest Boat Parade took place on the afternoon of Friday, July 4. A wind blowing off the lake helped beat back some of the midday heat, which reached into the 90s.

 

Prizes were $200 for first place, $75 for second. Prizes were presented on the lower level of the Boathouse immediately after the parade. The even was organized by Tom Glaser with emcee Cory Harguth. Ten boats, each with a unique name, competed: Montego Bay, Christmas in July, Soaring Eagles, The Loon Pontoon, WTF (Where’s the Fire?), Floatin’ the USA, The Bluejay Boat, StarCraft and Stripes, Uncle Slam and Pontooning in the USA.

 

For the Best Party Barge category, first place was Christmas in July; Bluejay Boat took second. For Most Creative category, Where’s the Fire? took first place, with the Loon Pontoon in second. In the Most Patriotic category, Soaring Eagles took first place, followed by Montego Bay.

 

Glaser said this about the contest, “For the most part, every boat was a set of close calls. The boats this year were absolutely fantastic, really creative with a multitude of entries. I’ve got a whole list of compliments from everyone who was there. This will be our third annual contest, and I would suspect that, with this success, it will keep going. After covid we had just four boats, and last year there were seven, this year we had 10. One did not show and we don’t know why. But other than that, we also had a great emcee, delivered a great performance, Cory Harguth, a meteorologist from KOWZ Radio. That, added with spectator attendance this year, puts this unmatched compared to any other year.”