Bring on the Snake Parade: Savannah Slithering returns for fourth year

By Lila Miller

SOMETHING slithering this way comes… It’s the Savannah Slithering, the annual snake illuminated lantern parade crawling through Baldwin Park to the Starland District, Saturday March 1 at 7 p.m.

I talked with co-founders of the parade, Brent Buice and Michael Kuenlen about the parade’s origins, how it's changed over the years, and what revelers and observers alike can expect. 

The Savannah Slithering Parade may have started in 2021, but the kernel of an idea came much prior to that in 2015, when Buice’s wife, Heather, moved to Savannah from Atlanta.

After being inspired by Mardi Gras krewes (groups of costumed revelers) and their parades in New Orleans, she had been an integral part of creating the Beltline Lantern Parade, with her krewe, the Grateful Gluttons. 

“Her good friend Chantelle lived in New Orleans, got involved in krewes there, and moved to Atlanta in the nineties, and was like, ‘Why don't we have any of that magic in Atlanta?’" Buice explains.

"Long story, very short – she's really artistic and started making big illuminated lanterns with friends, one of whom was my wife, and they started the Beltline Lantern Parade way back when, which is now a huge event with a hundred thousand people showing up, it's a really big deal, but my wife's krewe, the Grateful Gluttons are the people that started it, and every year they're at the very front of the Atlanta BeltLine parade,” Buice says. 

One evening, a group of their friends were together sharing beers at White Whale Bar and Brewery and posed the question: Why isn’t there an illuminated lantern parade in Savannah?

If you see a niche in the community not being filled, why not be the one to fill it? Create what you want to see. 

“We're sitting around at the White Whale, the bar, where we originally had the ideas over beers on cocktail napkins. My wife knows how to make these things [the lanterns]. You guys think this is a cool idea? Yes, yes, yes. Let's base it off of St. Patrick's Day. We already had a 10-foot snake lantern that we had built for the Beltline parade's tenth anniversary," Buice says.

"It all fell in our laps that it would be the Slithering, as opposed to a Christmas parade or a Halloween parade. And then we came up with a goofy back story that St. Patrick drove out the snakes. We're bringing the snakes back,” Buice says. 

And so their very own krewe, the Krewe of Humble Hedonists was born. 

Many members of the group are teachers, which lends itself well to the workshops they host prior to the parade. Participants can make their own lanterns, now free of charge, thanks to generous donations from local business sponsors.

Businesses that held workshops this year include Lone Wolf Lounge, The Magical World of Toys, and Kayak Kafe. 

Miss a workshop and still want to make your own? Starlandia Art Supply has complimentary lantern making kits available for pick up that include everything one needs to create their own snake lantern- craft material and a battery-operated lighting pack, to allow for illumination.

Over the last four years, they’ve learned a lot about how to put together a parade and get weird with it. In the first year, they stuck to the sidewalks and now have grown to become a permitted event complete with police escorts to ensure safety. 

“Year one, we were just like, ‘this is an insane idea.’ We don't know if anyone will come. It could just be the forty of us people. It ended up being a few hundred. It blew our expectations away," Buice remembers.

"We were so pleased, but we did not get permits the first couple of years. It was very guerilla, and we didn't have police escorts. We didn't have a permit so we were literally sticking to the sidewalks, walking single file, waiting for crosswalk signals to cross Drayton and Abercorn and Bull [streets],” Buice says. 

Their main concern was safety, due to the presence of families, and revelers starting the night pregaming early. The krewe utilized hand signals, whistles, and teamwork to make sure everyone had a good time and no one was injured in the process. 

“[We were saying] Stay on the sidewalk. Because what would ruin it is if someone got hurt the first year, it'd be over… the first years were very guerrilla. The second year, a lot of people knew what to do, so we did less in terms of safety needs. We learned things like, ‘what if we spray chalk the route where we're turning? So if people look down, they'll see an arrow going in that direction. We put little markers on telephone poles that would clue you in if you were looking up, not down. So we were learning from our mistakes along the route,” Kuenlen recalls. 

Last year, they were able to obtain permitting and police escorts to block intersections, which allowed participants to focus on the fun camaraderie and less on any safety concerns.

One downside they note from last year, is that many paradegoers felt the parade route was too short. This year, they’ve doubled the route from a 45-minute trek to 90 minutes. 

The parade will begin at 41st and Lincoln Streets and go east on 41st Street before turning left on East Broad Street and heading west towards the Starland District using 39th Street.

Residents along the route have been notified via mailbox fliers and invited to view the parade directly from their front porches. 

The parade will conclude at Starland Yard, with their accompanying band Samba Savannah, and Jared Hall and the Jug Band playing music on the small stage in the back of the food truck park. 

Starland Yard general manager, Ava Pandiani, has been a champion of the parade, and is serving as this year’s parade marshal. 

“She’s a snake charmer. She's got a special homemade scepter and a sash, and she'll be walking at the very front of the parade. Since year two, we've been designating a community member who's not krewe, who's been really supportive of the parade,” Buice explains. 

Last year’s marshal was Savannah Alderman Nick Palumbo, with the first year’s marshal being community member and local activist, Tom Kohler. 

This year’s parade is markedly different as it culminates in a definitive way- with a show at Starland Yard and drink specials abound.

Starland Yard will open their back gates, with identification check stations at both the back gate and the front entrance to mitigate crowd flow.

In years past, the parade would end around Desoto Row in a block party fashion, and parade attendees would gradually disperse. 

“It was packed and that was the problem. We kind of outgrew Desoto [Row]. We have these huge lanterns. We have a full band. We're like, ‘this is a little much.’ So, we've worked with Starland Yard to have them open the back, where we can come in… There's a double mini-stage in the back, and the band can have a small show for everybody," Kuenlen says.

"This is the first time that's going to happen, where we can have Samba Savannah and the Jared Hall Jug Band, the krewe jug band, and they can jam together, because we always wanted a culminating event, but we weren't sure how to tell everybody at the end, ‘this is the culminating event,’ and it kind of dissipated,” Kuenlen says. 

Sponsors include the Starland Dairy, Kayak Kafe, Starlandia, Starland Yard, Bike Walk Savannah, Lone Wolf Lounge, Jen Marks Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Center, Coastal Empire Moto, Green Truck Pub, The Magical World of Toys, Over Yonder, Superbloom, Sobre Mesa, Starland Strange, and Sav Tie Dye. 

Many of these local businesses will have drink and food specials, and festive decorations welcoming all who have come to see the walking parade return. 

Over the years, Savannahians have gotten increasingly creative with their lantern rendering and elaborate accoutrements, Buice and Kuenlen have some intriguing favorites.

“Brother Bruce, [local artist] in year one or two, [created] a three-headed, incredible paper mache, tripartite cobra god. It was just standing still, he didn’t take it off, and it looked wild. It had a crowd of people taking photographs of it. And we're just like, ‘thank you so much for making that and bringing that.’ That one really stood out to me as just next level,” Buice remembers. 

This year, the parade is sure to be a photographer’s dream. Local photography club, the Savannah Photo Club, will also be in attendance and have scheduled their monthly photo walk to occur in conjunction with the parade. 

“I always love when people bring actual snakes. I'm not promoting it, but I’ve seen one every year. Actual snakes, which is freaking awesome. And people are like ‘Whoa, snakes!’” Kuenlen remarks. 

The first year, the krewe had no idea what to expect. They keep design and costuming parameters open-ended to encourage people to get creative, and that is where the true magic in all of this lies. 

“Tons of people showed up that weren't at the workshops. Some guy showed up in a bird cage that came almost to his waist. He was a snake charmer, and inside the cage had a fake snake. It reminded me of ‘Big’ with Tom Hanks, because he puts the coin in the Zoltar machine and that's what he looked like. The amount of time that he spent putting this thing together, and he kept it from everybody… It really showed me what was capable. And we had touched a nerve in the community,” Kuenlen continues. 

“That's what we were hoping for. We put a vague theme out there- slithering snakes. That's all. We don't tell people what to do. There's the theme, now go crazy, lights and snakes, and you can do whatever. You can bring an octopus. We don't care, you know? That's the starting point, and people tend to stick with it, and folks just bring all kinds of stuff,” Buice adds.

Originally when the Savannah Slithering was more informal, the timeline between planning the parade and the parade itself was around a month. Now, with permits, escorts, and sponsors, they begin planning everything right after the New Year, though they both agree that planning needs to begin in December. In years past, the parade would be held the Thursday before St. Patrick’s Day. 

“When we didn't have permitting, it was our decision when the parade was held. First, it was the Thursday before St. Patrick's Day. The town is crammed to the gills. There's parties everywhere, right? We're just one other thing. When we went for a permit, I believe the city guidelines say not within at least a week and a day [of St. Patrick’s Day]” Kuenlen explains. 

“We didn't ever want to be after St Patrick's Day, because you've lost all the momentum. This year the earliest we could do it that wasn't a weeknight was Saturday, the first. We're a lot further in advance of St. Patrick's Day than we've ever been. That definitely accelerated the plan. We were like, ‘Whoa. We have a lot to do really fast,’” Buice says and laughs. 

The day of the parade, Two Tides Brewery is also holding a Georgia Beer Day Sour Fest from 12-6 p.m. in Desoto Row, and the pair are hopeful beer aficionados will want to join in on the parade too. 

“Our parade lineup starts at 6:30 p.m. We're hoping that we can dovetail that, get those folks who don't know about us,” Kuenlen says. 

It’s a labor of love to continue the Savannah Slithering parade, and all of the members involved donate their time to facilitate the event. 

“It turns out that having this much fun is a lot of work. We have a lot of meetings. They're fun meetings. We spent all last Sunday, crafting with hot glue, making brooches,” Buice says. 

They create homemade brooches and award them to parade participants with a particular panache. They also have T-shirts and secret stickers and other merchandise for sale, that they’ll also give away during the parade. 

“We appreciate every single person who takes time to show up for this parade. We think it's cool and we love that so many people in Savannah agree. We have so much appreciation. Aside from throwing the parade, these are tokens of our appreciation back to the community,” he finishes. 

So, why should people come to the Savannah Slithering? To delight in the strange weirdness of being alive and embrace community, now more than ever. 

“It's really fun to dance down the street with your weird neighbors,” Buice laughs. “The one that I keep going back to is from Heather. She asked one of her students, ‘What did you think of the St. Patrick's Day parade?’ ‘It was okay, but when I went to the Slithering, I was in the parade.’ Don’t see the parade, be the parade,” Kuenlen exclaims.

The Savannah Slithering is Saturday, March 1 at 7 p.m. Line up begins at 6:30 p.m. on the corner of Lincoln and 41st St. The parade is free both to participate in and watch from your porch or many of the businesses along the parade route. 

For more information and to follow along with all the reptilian shenanigans to come, follow them on Instagram @ hhksav