A group of people and vehicles were held up by Winkler Police Service from driving behind the Harvest Festival Parade Saturday morning.
As the last vehicle in the parade turned the corner at Mountain Avenue and 15th Street, toward Main Street, signalling the end of the parade, some people started packing up their chairs ready to go on about their day.
However, there was some confusion at the corner, as police blocked the corner from any further traffic turning onto Mountain from 15th Street. A number of large decorated vehicles could still be seen along the parade route on 15th Street.
"We're excited to have the festival again and be able to have a parade again, and it all went really well," said Chief Ryan Hunt. "We were anticipating, at the tail end of the parade or after the parade, there might be another group trying to latch on to the parade that had not been registered in the parade."
Hunt said their concern was for the safety of the people at the parade.
"We didn't want folks to think the parade was over, and then go walking out, and then crossing the street to go home, back to their cars, and then have another group of vehicles coming along. So our intent was to delay the group that was following up on the parade, just so they didn't encounter people walking on the streets. That's what our intent was.'
Everyone registered to be in the parade, was following the police cruiser leading the parade, added Hunt, and was in the line with the cruiser behind them.
"We were informed by the organizers of the parade they (the group looking to latch onto the parade) were not registered," added Hunt.
The situation ended well, and in the end, a number of the vehicles drove down Mountain Avenue with their horns honking about half an hour after the parade ended.
Someone with the group was asked for comment by a PembinaValleyOnline reporter on the scene but declined.
The parade was for a celebration, and not an opportunity to protest, added Winkler Mayor Martin Harder.
"It was not an opportunity to circumvent the rules and simply tag on to the end because (you feel), I have a right to tag on. You don't do your due diligence, you don't register, I am sorry, you don't participate," said Harder.
"The police made that decision over there (where the situation was unfolding)," continued Harder. "It was suggested that I had directed them...Actually, the parade was over and I was dispursing at the end of the parade, and I found out what had happened. Was I disappointed? Absolutely I was disappointed, that somebody would try to do that."
"We were here to celebrate, we are here to celebrate. That's what it was for. It was not there for anybody else to come in and try and circumvent the celebration we are trying to achieve."