Inside Azaleaville: Azalea Virtual Halloween Parade

The streets of Azalea came alive (virtually, of course) for this year’s Azalea Virtual Halloween Parade, a colorful collection of neighborhood pride and imagination. Every entry captured a piece of Azaleaville’s character - the Science Center Revival, the Admiral Farragut sloop-of-war, the towering Density Monster, and Babe Ruth at the Jungle Country Club.

“White Peachicks” — The Grand Marshals

The parade begins at dusk with the grand marshals in dazzling white peacock costumes leading the parade with elegance and local flair.

“Jungle Country Club” — Babe Ruth Points the Way

The parade crowd cheered as a towering Babe Ruth rolled into view, the great slugger rising from a glowing green float like a monument in motion. Dressed in his classic Yankees pinstripes, the Bambino pointed confidently down the parade route, calling his shot toward the next block. Warm streetlights glinted off the metallic surface as marchers in vintage baseball uniforms waved alongside, celebrating Azalea’s proud link to its most legendary frequent visitor.

“The Density Monster” — Porter Development Balloon

The team from Porter Development made a terrifying impression at this year’s Azalea Virtual Halloween Parade with their towering “Density Monster” balloon, a self-inflating tribute to life in stacked shoeboxes, traffic congestion, and the triumph of optimism over soil reports.

The Parade of the Peacocks filled Azalea’s streets with feathers and just enough glitter to confuse local wildlife.

“Wonder Lives Here” — The Science Center Revival FloatThe Science Center Revival float glides down Farragut Drive like a glowing dream of mid-century optimism reborn. Neon rockets hum above bubbling glass beakers, pink and turquoise plasma coils pulse in rhythm, and four young “scientists” in white coats wave solemnly from the platform.

Out front, a man in a gray suit and fedora walks with his hands in his pockets; physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, or at least someone convincingly channeling him, leading a squad of silver-suited astronauts holding glowing atomic symbols. His expression is caught somewhere between pride and foreboding, as if even here, amid the confetti and children’s cheers, he’s aware of the power that science can unleash.

Just behind, the soft blue glow of the Admiral Farragut “Damn the Torpedoes” float breaks through the mist, a glowing model of the USS Hartford sailing through waves of dry ice, flanked by moonwalking Admiral Farragut Academy grads in dress whites and mirrored helmets, their choreography crisp and confident.

“Azalea Little League” — Our Home Team Forever

Marching proudly under a long hand-painted banner, the Azalea Little League walking contingent brought both smiles and nostalgia to the night parade. Boys and girls in classic pinstripe uniforms carried bats and gloves, tossing softballs into the cheering crowd as a tribute to the neighborhood’s once-beloved league, a fixture of countless childhoods now gone.

“Admiral Farragut” — Damn the Traffic Cones, Full Speed Ahead (at 2 Miles per Hour)

Sailing through the Azalea Virtual Halloween Parade in grand style, a glowing steam-powered sloop-of-war complete with puffing smokestack and a brass nameplate reading “USS Hartford.” Parade historians were quick to note that when Admiral Farragut shouted his immortal “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” he wasn’t charging the enemy so much as escaping from the Confederates at Mobile Bay.

The Tocobaga float made its grand entrance right on time, after a brief 500-year delay.

And so the Azalea Virtual Halloween Parade rolled on through the night, past the palms, past midnight snacks and sleepy kids, and right into the dawn. We’re told the floats kept coming: a few we never even managed to capture, and at least one that might have circled back twice. Unfortunately, we ran out of film sometime around sunrise, but if you heard distant music and saw a shimmer of feathers or confetti in the morning light, you were probably watching the encore.