Popular parade of Jeeps returning for 2020 event
The Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year and part of the celebration is the return of one of the event's most popular activities — the Jeep Parade.
The festival runs from June 12 to 14 with activities at Cooper's Lake Campground in Slippery Rock Township and downtown Butler.
Festival organizers surveyed participants during the 2019 festival and learned Jeep enthusiasts wanted the parade to be the highlight of the upcoming anniversary event.
“It was an overwhelming sentiment that they wanted the parade to come back,” said Patti Jo Lambert, festival director.
The last parade was held during the 2015 festival and set a world record for the largest Jeep parade with 2,420 Jeep vehicles, according to Guinness World Records. A parade was also held during the 2011 festival.
“We are going to make the parade happen again,” Lambert said.
Unlike the 2015 parade, festival organizers wanted to manage the length of this year's procession by limiting it to 1,500 vehicles, she said.
Jeep owners who register their vehicles will gather at the Pittsburgh Butler Regional Airport on June 12. They will pull out at 4 p.m. and head north on Route 8 to downtown Butler.
The first 500 vehicles will continue through the city and the 1,000 vehicles that follow will park in town for the annual Jeep Invasion. The first 500 vehicles will return for the festivities.
“The parade will just naturally evolve into the invasion,” Lambert said.Owners who register for the parade will receive a commemorative badge.Lambert said festival organizers are also planning to expand two activities introduced in 2019 — the Barbie Jeep Race where children and adults can race powered toy Jeeps and the nighttime Festival of Lights that allows Jeep owners to show off their accessory lighting. Both events are free to the public and will be held June 13 at the campground.“One thing Jeep owners like to do is accessorize their Jeep's with lights. They're all different colors and they have them all,” Lambert said. “It's an opportunity to check out the Jeeps in a way you wouldn't normally see them.”The festival attracts new Jeep owners every year and donating proceeds to nonprofit organizations remains a priority, according to Lambert.“The festival continues to grow, That's really exciting for us. Even after nine years we still have new people coming,” Lambert said, adding how 30 percent of this year's festival participants were new to the event. “It's grown into a destination, a family activity for people to do every year.”The Friends of the Bantam Jeep Association, a nonprofit group, donated $16,300 to 21 nonprofit organizations in Butler County following the 2019 festival, bringing the association's overall donation total to $93,500 since 2016.And the 2020 festival expects to push that number above the $100,000 mark.“After (next) year we should be over $100,000 in donations since 2016,” Lambert said, pointing out how many of the festival's 500 volunteers are from the benefiting nonprofits. “We want to make sure we share our success with other nonprofits in the community. That's such an important part of our organization.”
Most activities slated for the 2020 Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival require owners to register.Registration through the festival website — www.bantamjeepfestival.com — begins in mid-January and ends sometime in May.
