The Flambeau Parade has been called America’s largest illuminated night parade. Millions of spectators who have watched it light the way through the final weekend of the feasting and frolicking of Fiesta San Antonio know it as the BEST of America’s parades.  ‘Flambeau’ is a French word meaning a tall candlestick or burning torch. Participants in the Flambeau Parade have used both to give the cool Texas evening the appearance of being illuminated by thousands of stars.

The idea of a lighted parade, now one of the premier events of Fiesta, was the brainchild of civil engineer Reynolds Andricks. Despite his insistence that he knew nothing about parades, he was elected to the Board of the Fiesta San Jacinto Association in 1948. His recollection of his first meeting: “I was astounded that so few people seemed interested in Fiesta. They didn’t think that they should add another parade.” He recommended that the ‘new’ parade take place at night and that it be called Fiesta Flambeau.

The prospect of an evening parade was not entirely original.  Andricks had enjoyed night parades as part of the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans. He believed, however, that with help he could create an event as unique as San Antonio. In Fredericksburg, a German community in the Texas Hill Country west of San Antonio, lived William Petmecky. He had for years spent his working days as the tax assessor and then postmaster for Gillespie County. Over the course of half a century, his free time was spent as an active participant in county fairs. Petmecky began the famed Easter Fires Pageant in Fredericksburg, writing the script and a booklet describing the legend. He was widely recognized as a ‘Festival Impresario’. By the time that Andricks was planning Fiesta Flambeau, Petmecky had become nationally known as a creator of folk festivals. He was delighted to be asked to help create Fiesta’s first illuminated night parade.

Giving Flambeau a Flare

Andricks and Petmecky decided that the most effective way to light the parade route was to have torch brigades. Each brigade consisted of four men carrying flares like those used by police as warning devices at accident scenes – only these flares were attached to five-foot poles. The torch units marched at intervals between each ten parade entries, lighting the evening for all to see. Bands attached flashlights to their music stands and floats lit themselves up in whatever unique fashion the designer created. The idea would be to provide a thousand or more points of light in the San Antonio sky.

The Association approved the parade plan, but the men faced the problem of where to find participants. The Battle of Flowers had been in existence for fifty-seven years and had built a national reputation. The ‘Day Parade’ had sponsors that arranged for beautiful floats and the best bands available. But Andricks noted that the military was not entering this parade.

In order to garner the interest of the military, a huge part of San Antonio’s population, Andricks began with a visit to the Commanding General of Fort Sam Houston and then to each Air Force Base Commander. Andricks made his proposal more enticing by suggesting that each base elect a Queen and have her represent the base on their parade float. This was a startling proposal since he was taking a chance that many would believe that the military beauties would be competing with the throne of the Order of the Alamo Queen. Andricks was quick to offer the assurance that Fiesta had grown large enough to accommodate some additional crowned heads. He also made it clear that he was establishing a new line of nobility that would be known only as Flambeau Royalty. The military brass liked his ideas and decided to take part.

Crowning the Royal Realm

The announcement that some new sovereigns would have a role in Fiesta came as a surprise to the Order of the Alamo and the Texas Cavaliers, heretofore the sole creators of Fiesta royalty. Nevertheless, Andricks moved forward with his plans and the first Flambeau Parade boasted half a dozen military bands and a similar number of floats, each adorned by a Queen. Today, the military nobility has changed in that each base selects a male and a female representative that are known as ‘Military Ambassadors’.

Andricks did not want his parade to look like troops marching to war. Never one to stand on protocol, her turned next to groups that previously had been overlooked accidentally or ignored deliberately by what he called “the high society” sponsors of the Battle of Flowers and River parades. He wanted a variety of entries and lots and lots of color. He wanted fun – and he got it.

First, the Shriners came in with their fez-topped band and a group of their famed trick cyclists. Next, Andricks solicited commercial firms to join – they could afford fancy floats like those in the Battle of Flowers. He convinced them that the visibility of the Flambeau Parade would be good for business. Soon, civic clubs and social groups became a part of Flambeau. These groups were intrigued, Andricks said, by his idea to stage “a parade of nations where Americans who have pride in their heritage have an opportunity to build a float (emblematic) of their country”.

Andricks expressed concern at meetings of the Fiesta San Jacinto Association that the other two Fiesta parades were too restricted in their entries. Other communities had for years sent Duchesses to the Coronation of the Queen, but the floats in the Battle of Flowers Parade were purely local. He decided to take his ideas to outlying areas for possible participants.

“Come one, come all…”

“I visited festivals throughout South Texas and made deals with them,” he told a reporter. “If they’d send a float to Flambeau, I’d send a float to their parade.” It worked – within a year or two there were as many as twenty-five out-of-town floats following torchbearers in the Flambeau. This exchange program helped to focus national attention on Fiesta. Flambeau had its own Queen and she was called Miss Fiesta. She and her float attended such diverse events as the Florida Festival of States, the Cherry Blossom Festival in the nation’s capital, the Minneapolis Aquatennial, the St. Paul Winter Carnival and the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena.

The Fiesta Flambeau has been, from its inception, a different sort of organization. Andricks directed the parade for more than three decades and very much enjoyed adding the unexpected. One year one of the many baton twirlers was a fifty-four year old grandmother whose claim to fame was as a member of the Mothers’ Club of Texas A&M University. Allowing her participation was evidence that Andricks was fair and open-minded. As an alumnus of the University of Texas, he felt keen rivalry with the Aggies and always saw to it that the 350-piece UT Longhorn Band led his Flambeau Parade.

Andricks not only included the unusual in the Flambeau Parade, he also would stop at nothing to make sure that nothing stopped the show.

One year he signed Mickey Dolenz, a youngster starring in a TV series called “Elephant Boy”, to ride an elephant in the parade. Andricks rented the elephant and paid for the boy and his mother to stay in a downtown San Antonio hotel. When they failed to arrive on schedule at the assembly point of the parade, Andricks hailed a police car and was driven with red lights flashing to the St. Anthony Hotel. The mother and son were having a leisurely meal in the restaurant when Andricks arrived and jerked the boy out of his seat. It was ten minutes before parade start time and his police car ride was not to be seen. Then he saw it parked down the street, but the officer was missing. No matter. Andricks started the car and headed out Broadway with his elephant-rider in tow. He later learned that he had taken a police car while the officer was inside investigating a robbery. No matter what - the parade started on time!!

Flambeau Changes Direction

Reynolds Andricks passed away in 1984. During his illness and after his death, various groups were tasked with the responsibility of sponsoring the parade. The Shriners took on the job in 1983 and the Jaycees tried their hand in 1984. However, the Junior Chamber later decided to give it up so as to concentrate on their Fiesta event, “La Semana Alegre”. In 1988 the Fiesta Commission delegated the Flambeau to the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council No. 2, the same group that elects the Ugly King. When LULAC found themselves in an internal legal wrangle in 1989, a volunteer group took over the event. The following year this group became known as the Fiesta Flambeau Parade Association. Their 1990 parade was rated by the press (and thousand who watched it) as one of the best yet.

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Parade history taken out of the book titled "A Century of Fiesta in San Antonio" by Jack Maguire.