BEVERLY — The annual Beverly Farms Horribles Parade that has regularly sparked controversy in the past for offensive floats and costumes was largely tame this Fourth of July.
Hale Street was packed with onlookers dressed in red, white and blue as the parade marched down Hale Street shortly after 8 a.m. Friday morning.
The event featured a Caribbean steel drum band, bagpipers and Colonel Bailey’s 2nd Massachusetts Regiment, a group of Revolutionary War reenactors who shot off replica muskets throughout the parade.
City councilors Matt St. Hilaire and Brendan Sweeney waved from the front of the parade, and fellow councilor Todd Rotondo was seen carrying a Beverly 400+ banner, marking the city’s celebration of its 400th anniversary next year. Behind him rolled a roughly 10-foot tall cake float that donned the writing “Happy Birthday” Beverly.
Some floats were political or addressed current events.
A group of participants wearing banana costumes walked with signs behind a banner that read “2025: It’s All Bananas!!” Their signs included phrases like “Sink (W)holefoods? Bananas!,” “Katy Perry in Space? Bananas!,” “Saturday School? Bananas!,” “American Pope? Bananas!,” “Trash Strike? Bananas!” and “47 Years to Build a Bridge? Bananas! #Ryalisle.”
Another float mocked the trial of Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs that wrapped up this week when a jury acquitted him of sex trafficking and racketeering charges related to his frequent drug and sex parties, but convicted him on prostitution charges. Signs on the float read “From yachts to YIKES!,” “Bottle service sponsored by Johnson & Johnson” and “Diddy Up, it’s a FREAK OFF!”
A fake alligator sat on the back of a fire truck decorated with signs poking fun at Alligator Alcatraz, a new immigrant detention center that was built in the Florida Everglades in just eight days and began holding immigrants this week.
Signs carried by The Friends of the Beverly Farms Library said, “Funding Libraries is Wonderful, Banning Books is Horrible” and “Any Book Worth Banning is a Book Worth Reading,” referencing a push to ban certain books in libraries and schools across the country, often books that discuss race or LGBTQ+ issues.
A “Pirates for Peace” float carried participants dressed as pirates and featured a small clay figure of President Donald Trump walking a plank. Next to him were signs saying “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” and “There Be NO KINGS In These Waters.”
One cart seemed to mock one of the parade’s longtime organizers Don MacQuarrie, though a paper “a” taped to the name on the posters made them read “Dan MacQuarrie.” The posters referenced him as “Kim-Dan-Un” and “the new Bob Lockwood” over a dispute concerning the parade committee’s bylaws.
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com.