A fire-breathing dragon is one of many giant sculptures to parade down Sonoma Boulevard beginning at 4:30 p.m. for 2016’s Mad Hatter Festival. (Photo courtesy of Mad Hatter)

The seventh annual Mad Hatter Holiday Festival will return to Vallejo Saturday, Dec. 3 with all the familiar costumes, music and characters from Alice in Wonderland and other fantasy lands, along with added exhibits and events for 2016. This year’s festival is suitable for families and children of all ages, according to festival producer Frank Malifrando.
Festivities begin at 1 p.m. with live entertainment, children’s rides, interactive games and award-winning, fire-shooting mobile creations of horses, dragons, mushrooms and ponies. A holiday skateboarding group will liven up the downtown leading up to a parade that begins at 4:30 and proceeds along Sonoma Boulevard from Georgia Street to the festival site.
Roving, lighted Tea Parties will travel in the parade, along with Cal Maritime’s “March of the Wooden Soldiers. ” Featured attractions include Chester the Firing Pony, Rhino Redemption–a 1974 Chevy Pick-Up repurposed into a rhinoceros-shaped robotic art car–, a re-created glowing and flying space ship, giant moving robots, a multi-colored Vicious Cycle, Krampus, dancing horses, Darth Vader and other “Star Wars” characters. Hero of Vallejo Justin Fowler will also be in attendance. Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of five, Fowler received a new set of lungs in 2013 and has since persevered through 13 surgeries, remaining hopeful and enthusiastic.
New additions to the 2016 festivities include a giant mechanical squid by Nevada sculptor Barry Crawford, a hand-crafted robotic giant that flexes its mechanical tentacles; the Firing Dragon Wagon with its fierce but friendly demeanor; and the Knight Bus, modeled after Harry Potter’s Night Bus ride to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The 2016 parade’s Grand Marshal will be Vallejo’s own Suga-T of “Sprinkle Me” fame, who was recently awarded VH1 Hip Hop Honors by Queen Latifah as a West Coast Female Hip Hop Pioneer. Suga-T is also the founder of “TGC” Young Grandmothers Club and the “first lady” of her family rap group The Click, which also featured her brothers E-40, D-Shot and cousin B-Legit.
A tree lighting ceremony begins at 6 p.m. with caroling, Wonderland characters and a fire-shooting Santa Gnome. Bginning at 6:30 p.m., visitors can watch the lighted boat parade, presented by Valloejo Yacht Club members, CAL Maritime Cadets and the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Mad Hatter Festival takes place at Unity Plaza in front of Vallejo’s JFK Library at 505 Santa Clara St. beginning at 1 p.m. Admission is free.
To watch a video of past Mad Hatter events featuring Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis, visit youtube.com/watch?v=jN6MhLHYFrI&feature=youtu.be. Find the Mad Hatter Festival website at HatterVallejo.com or visit the Facebook page at facebook.com/madhatterholidayvallejo for more information.

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