Grown men zipped around Main Street in miniature cars Saturday, as troops of clowns played with kids and entire divisions of Arabian marching bands paraded up Main Street in the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl Game Pre-Game Parade.
Hundreds of people came to Hanover for the game and parade, sponsored by three Shriner temples: Bektash of Concord, Cairo of Rutland, Vt., and Mount Sinai of Montpelier, Vt.
The Bowl Game, which started in 1954, is an annual event that pits the best high school football players from Vermont against the best players from New Hampshire.
The parade was made up of members from 12 Shriner Temples and included everything from Arabian bands playing Aladinesque music to a larger than life blow-up shriner that waved to the spectators.
Burt Metcalfe, a member of the Concord Provost division of Shriners, said people do whatever they think they can do best.
The crowd of Shriners was easy to spot where ever it went because of the signature Fez caps.
Jim Brown, a member of the Concord Provost division of Shriners, said he did not know the exact origin of the caps, but speculated that "they went with the Fez to identify themselves."
Metcalfe said there have been bigger crowds in the past and added that the weather probably had a lot to do with the turnout of spectators.
All the proceeds from the event benefit the two Shriners' hospitals for "crippled children" and Shriners' Boston Burns Institute.
"It's all for the kids," Metcalfe said. "We all get together and have fun, but all the money goes to childrens' hospitals."
There are 19 Shriners' hospitals for crippled children and three Shriners' Burns Institutes throughout the country. The care received at the Hospitals is free for any child under the age of 18.
Metcalfe said the first Shriners' hospital was founded in 1922.
Last year the event raised $190,000 for the hospitals and in the first forty-one years a total of $3,490,000 has been raised by the Bowl Game.
Metcalfe stressed that everyone who participated in the parade and Bowl Game was doing it as a volunteer.
The parade route started at Hanover High School and carried through North Main Street.