It all began with a birthday.
Twenty years ago someone asked Jules McCue what she wanted for her birthday, which falls on April 28. "Jules said I want people to dress up in cardboard boxes," said Tia Traviss, who helped organize the upcoming 2025 event.
Jules's husband, Chris McCue, answered the initial call: that first year they had between seven and 10 people show up in cardboard costumes. Over the years the Box Parade has grown, he said, with a record high 235 people turning out one year. People who share their birthday with Jules McCue have chosen to celebrate by joining the parade too.
Many of the people who participate have been doing so since the beginning. "The Box Parade has morphed because we've all had kids. We had baby boxes," said Traviss, who has been in every parade except the first one.
"It's been tradition ever since, and awesome to see all the locals show up," one person wrote on a Tofino Facebook post. It's not just the locals who know about the parade: Traviss, who is a real estate agent, said she had a client call her up once and say they wanted to live in the place that has the Box Parade.
"I said, 'you're kidding me!' They moved here." She made sure they knew when the Box Parade was and urged them to join in.
Traviss said the parade has remained informal, and that's part of its charm. They don't ask permission—they've even had a mayor join them in costume—they sometimes hold up cars so everyone can safely cross the road, and the box battle at the end of the march is epic. "It's a grand smash-up and it's last box standing."
There will be prizes for best box, best team box and best little box as well as the last box standing. All the awards are made of cardboard, of course.
This year's event will take place on Monday, April 28—Jules's birthday, of course. Everyone is encouraged to come to Centennial Park near Tonquin for 6 p.m. with their cardboard creations (no wooden frames or other hard materials). The march will start at 7 p.m., and will wind its way around the neighbourhood before arriving back at the park for the box battle.
If you've never seen the box parade, check out Geoff Johnson's Ukee Tube videos on his YouTube channel. Better yet, paint up a box and bring it down to the park on April 28. The more the merrier.
