The 97th annual Bud Billiken Parade steps off Saturday at 10 a.m. from the intersection of 39th Street and South King Drive, then marches south through Bronzeville and finishes at Washington Park. Nearly 300 participants are set to appear, and the crowd is expected to top 500,000.
That scale is why the parade still lands like a citywide moment. For one morning, the route becomes a moving stage for the South Side, with families lining the street and performers pushing through a parade that has lasted 97 years and keeps drawing people back because it is as much a gathering as it is a procession.
One of the groups trying to turn that attention into a win is AstronautFlee Dance Company, which is preparing for its seventh appearance and defending back-to-back Bud Billiken dance competition titles. The group practiced five hours each day in the lot behind the University of Chicago Charter School’s Woodlawn campus, after moving its practice base to a storefront in Woodlawn when gunfire erupted in front of its old studio in Chatham and left three teens wounded.
Inside the team is Aaliyha Polpuitt, a senior at Brooks Magnet High School who joined two years ago after watching YouTube videos of the company’s performances. She said the group appealed to her because it lets members help others while improving themselves, and because everyone on the team pushes one another. AstronautFlee has 175 full-time members, and 130 will be performing in the parade this weekend.
The parade’s draw is simple math: a fixed Saturday start, a large South Side tradition, and enough performers to fill the route with motion from the first step to the last. Benjamin Washington has led the King College Prep program since 2001, and the King College Prep Marching Band is also preparing for the morning with a practice march to Hyde Park on Thursday, then a trip to watch the new Spiderman movie before marching back to campus. With that kind of buildup, the question is not whether the route will be busy. It is how long Bronzeville can hold a crowd this large before the bands and dancers clear into Washington Park.
