Some quaint Orlando traditions keep falling to the wayside. First the Kumquat parade disappeared and now the Florida Citrus Bowl Parade is a thing of the past.The annual Parade celebrated the holidays and two annual college football bowl games: the Camping World Bowl and the Citrus Bowl.
Started in 1980, the parade was previously known as the Florida Power (Progress Energy) Super Holiday Parade, the Orlando Citrus Parade, and most recently the Fresh From Florida Parade. In 2005, Delta Air Lines sponsored the parade, calling it The Orlando Citrus Parade, presented by Delta Air Lines. Since 2007, Spherion
was a major sponsor of the parade along with Delta Air Lines as
co-sponsor, being called The Spherion Orlando Citrus Parade, presented
by Delta Air Lines.
In 2011, the parade was sponsored by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services,
being renamed as the Fresh From Florida Parade for one year. It then became
known as the Florida Citrus Parade. In 2018 the parade was televised in
the Orlando market as the “All New Orlando Citrus Parade” in a star
studded celebration to benefit the Give Kids The World Village.
This year the Orlando Citrus Parade organizers choose not to stage the event citing the cost of planning and producing the event.I used to love sketching the Shriner’s at the beginning of the parade route before they got in their tiny go cars to spin their way down the parade route.