This is information for the 2012 Big Parade. The 2013 updates will appear in March, 2013. The 2013 Big Parade will be held on May 18/19 2013.

What are you doing?

The Big Parade is a 35-mile, 2-day walk from Bunker Hill to the Hollywood sign.  

Why?

Because we can!

This old part of the city is full of sidewalks and public stairways, built at a time when feet were an integral part of our everyday navigation. These places offer an informative, lesser-known vista of the current cityscape, but also a telescope onto the past, and the stories that have shaped it. At the same time, connecting this swath of city on foot is an opportunity to walk towards a future overlook, where the City of Angels will be a closer-knit cluster of smaller, walkable neighborhoods. We are rehearsing, learning this next city with each step over these two days.

Because we want to know our neighbors.

Some of us are in it for the thrill of a 2-day-long walk, others for the close encounter with a neighborhood or two. Various organized groups in the communities we traverse will also join us along the way, and we have planned our slow westward move to facilitate place-prideful conversations among all.

Because we want to make our own maps.

After a full day along a meandering path from downtown to Silverlake, several walkers will camp at the base of the Music Box Steps, famous for their use in Laurel and Hardy’s 1932 Academy Award-winning film of the same name, but adapted this night as civilized wilderness for weary travelers. On Sunday, we continue west through the Franklin Hills, traverse some of Griffith Park’s wilds and then finish at the iconic Hollywood sign, from which (air quality permitting) we will celebrate with a long backwards look at our pilgrimage. 

We will have covered 40 miles, and not missed a foot of it!

We invite you to join us! —and see, hear, smell, feel what surprising city emerges in your own steps.

- Jen Petersen