Phrequency gallery: Sheryl Crow's performanceOCEAN CITY, N.J. - A sea of red, white, and blue descended upon South Ocean City yesterday morning, when more than 1,000 cyclists of all ages displayed their patriotic-decorating skills in the annual holiday bike parade.
Contestants found creative ways to spice up bicycles, scooters, and strollers with streamers, balloons, garlands, crepe paper, and leis, while participants donned stars-and-stripes hats, bandannas, shirts, and beads; Uncle Sam suits; and Statue of Liberty costumes.
The festive group paraded a mile and a half along Central Avenue in just one of the many celebratory events held down the Shore on the Fourth of July.
Rachel Battersby, vice president of the South Ocean City Improvement Association, the sponsor, said the parade had happened every July Fourth for almost 60 years.
This year's was the biggest yet, with more than 1,000 registered participants, compared with about 900 last year.
"Every year," Battersby said, "the groups get bigger and better."
The parade began at Asbury Avenue and 40th Street and ended at the playground at 53d Street, where the winners were announced.
The four judges, who anonymously assess each bike before the parade, consider originality and patriotic display, Battersby said.
They award trophies for first, second and third place in each group: ages 3 and younger, ages 4 to 7, ages 8 and older, family, and groups of more than 20.
The winner in the family group was a team of seven girls, ages 4 through 11, from Maryland and New Jersey. The group, six cousins and a neighbor, wore matching sailor hats and skirts.
According to the girls, the idea came from grandmother Rosemary Beger of Bryn Mawr, who owns a house in Ocean City.
Beger said she that had ordered the sailor hats, but that each girl had decorated her own scooter.
"We didn't think we would win," said Kaela Sierra, 11, of Voorhees, "and we did."
Spectators flew their own American flags and clapped, waved, and snapped photographs during the parade, some lining the streets and others watching from their porches and balconies.
Certain themes emerge every year, based on current events, movies, or the popular action hero of the time, Battersby said. The prominent theme this year was clear.
One bike had a "Phanatic for Ocean City" sign attached to it, and another read "World Champions."
One contestant donned a Phanatic costume. Others simply wore their Philadelphia Phillies shirts and jerseys, fitting in perfectly with the red, white, and blue scheme.
Miss Ocean City, Junior Miss Ocean City, and Little Miss Ocean City led the parade, and various groups, such as the 44th Street Kazoo band, performed routines between the groups of cyclists.
Later in the day, Ocean City hosted a kite-flying contest and live entertainment before nighttime fireworks.
At the other end of Ocean City, a Northend bike parade was hosted by the Gardens Civic Association.
Wildwood's holiday parade started at 9 a.m. and stretched from 15th and Atlantic Avenues to Second Avenue.
In Wildwood Crest, the weekend Fourth of July Freedom Festival continues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at Rambler Road and the Ocean Avenue gazebo.
Stone Harbor hosted all-day festivities, with a sand-sculpture contest, a candy scramble, a Phillies home-run derby, and a bike race.
Visitors to Ocean City came from as far as Colorado, where Chris Marx and his family live. Marx's in-laws live in Ocean City, and he and his family have participated in the parade for the last four years.
He wore an Uncle Sam suit and pushed his sleeping son in a stars-and-stripes-covered stroller. "My wife's kind of obsessed with this stuff," he said. "It's just fun."
Contact staff writer Megan DeMarco at 856-779-3844 or mdemarco@phillynews.com.
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