Parade Kicks Off at 2 p.m., Sunday

One of the biggest social and political events to be held in town each year, the rescheduled Labor Day Parade will kick off at 2 p.m., Sunday.

Check out the parade route, including road closures and parking bans as listed on above map. The red line represents the parade route, the gray line represents no parking and purple lines are no parking on one side of the street. All roads will be closed starting 1:45 p.m. and will re-open at or around 4 p.m.

This year, which marks the 50th running of the event, the parade committee is hosting a fair on the grounds of Newtown Middle School, which will start at 10 a.m. and run through 4 p.m.

A giant Nation's Flag will be unfurled at 1:45 p.m. at the Main Street flagpole while a second one will be unfurled at 2:15 p.m. at Queen Street. Also look for a flyover of a restored B17 bomber escorted by two fighter planes. The Wells Fargo horsedrawn stage coach also is billed as a main feature. A parade line-up is included as a .pdf to this article or on the Newtown Labor Day Parade website.

The grand marshal is Lee Glover, who also was the grand marshal in 1962 when the parade tradition first began.

Also, don't forget to bring a can of nonperishable food for the 1 Can Make a Difference drive to benefit the FAITH pantry. Volunteers wearing orange T-shirts will be collecting the cans as their float makes its way through the parade route.

Brochures for the parade will be made available by cheerleaders and other volunteers who will be driving golf carts up and down Main Street distributing the materials.

Best parking spots will be at the supermarket lots, such as Caraluzzi and Big Y, as well as nearby St. Rose School, the old Lexington Gardens store, Hawley School as well as at C.H. Booth Library. For the latter, be prepared to be blocked in until the roads re-open. In all cases, be prepared for delays and traffic.