18 August 2016
Flathead fair parade officials to news media photographers —
Make damn sure you stay on the sidewalk during the parade
I’ve been photographing parades in Kalispell and the Flathead for almost two decades. Last month I photographed the Independence Day parade in Kalispell. I need to move out in the street a bit, but I do this carefully and risk injury to neither myself nor anyone else.
When I learned that the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the parade, was finally going to do a better job of keeping the crowd away from the marchers, which was welcome news, I wanted to support the effort and therefore approached to chamber to find a way to avoid having its parade marshals yank me back on the sidewalk and prevent me from doing my job.
In the course of discussing the matter with the chamber, I learned that the chamber has hired a photographer to record the parade, and that this is something new. That may have a bearing on the following note that the parade’s organizers sent me this morning. The highlighting is mine.
Your contact information was passed along to me regarding your inquiry about photography for the Fair Parade tomorrow morning. Right now with our safety regulations we have to ask that all media photographs/videos from the sidewalks/parking lanes rather than walks through the middle of the street. Absolutely feel free to wander up and down the spectator sides of the parade, we just can’t have people in the road lanes. This is the first parade in many, many years where parking will be removed from Main Street, so depending on the success of it and seeing how much space we gain, there could be the possibility of you getting into the road for future parades. This we will not know until tomorrow, though.
Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
Kate Lufkin, Marketing & Communications Specialist
Will the chamber’s photographer be given the run of the street? Or does this policy only apply to everyone else?
I forwarded Ms. Lufkin’s note to the InterLake and Flathead Beacon as a courtesy, just in case she forgot to send them a copy.
And I do want to compliment Ms. Lufkin on her thoughtfulness in reminding me that I can feel free to wander up and down the “spectator sides” of the parade. Otherwise, I might have forgotten that the parade is a public event, in a public venue, that I have the right to photograph it, that neither the people in the parade nor the people watching it have any expectation of privacy, and that I don’t need the chamber’s blessing to move freely up and down the sidewalk. In fact, the chamber doesn't have the power to provide such a blessing.
I may send a copy of this post to Donald Trump. I think Kate Lufkin has what it takes to work for him.