If the Summer Solstice Parade allowed words on its ensembles (it doesn’t) and if its honchos indulged in cheap corporate gimmickry (they don’t), this year’s premier float would bear the legend “Under New Management.” The parade, which began as artistic free spirit Michael Gonzales’s thrift-store-clothing-festooned birthday party, evolved into an annual event and is now in its 42nd year and headed by a new duo — (pictured above, from left) Robin Elander and Robby Robbins. The parade’s formative era featured nearly as many directors as years in business as it groped for identity and a permanent home behind the scenes while it conga-kicked merrily up State Street as 100,000 spectators blithely watched.
During the last 16 years, however, the celebration actually found relative stability under the year-round care of executive director Claudia Bratton, who recently retired. Present since the first parade, Bratton quested after financial solvency (or something like it), finding a home and pushing the parades’ floats and troupes toward a more fun-for-the-whole-family celebration style. She sacrificed a bit of the wildness, but she got what she sought.
This year’s change of guard was nothing like a coup. “I think Claudia is as important to this parade as Michael Gonzales was,” said Robbins, the brand-new development and communications director for the parade. “She stabilized us, which is amazing.” Elander, the new executive director, agrees: “She hasn’t been around much, though she attends events, but I know I can contact her anytime for help.” There are boardmembers and friends of the parade to help, and Elander and Robbins feel they inherited a well-oiled crazy machine.