How should I prepare for a parade?

Riding Advice
1

This last month, I learned how to play my accordion while riding my unicycle and my dad thought it would be fun for me to enter one of my local Czech days parades. I think it would be a lot of fun too but I’m not sure how to prepare for it. It is in a small town so I doubt the route will be too long. My max distance I have gone is 10 miles but while playing accordion it is only 1 mile so far. And I can’t idle yet. So my questions include:

  1. How should I prepare myself for this event?
  2. Should I request a specific spot in the parade queue? Is it better to be in the front or back?
  3. I have a 20" and a 26" unicycle. I feel more comfortable on the 26", but I naturally go faster. Would the 20" wheel be better for a parade?
  4. Are there any specific maneuvers I should try learning to make navigating the street easier? For example, if I’m coming close to car in front of me, do I try to just ride way slower or circle back until I’m further away? Realistically, I should just learn to idle but I can’t make any progress on it.
  5. I probably know between 20-25 songs. Should I stick with maybe 2-3 songs just because people won’t be able to tell I’m repeating songs?

I greatly appreciate any advice!

2

Riding in the parade was a success… for the most part. I decided it would be easiest to switch between two songs just so I wouldn’t have to worry about picking songs while riding. Throughout the whole parade route (1.2 miles), I only had two unplanned dismounts which were nothing bad. I just lost balance a little and had to step off. Every time I would catch up the the vehicle in front of me, I did a little loop to save time. The only thing that did not go to plan was the volume of my accordion. My accordion doesn’t have any form of internal microphone, so when I saw a video of me in the parade there was no sound. I could only hear about two notes when I was closest to the curb during a loop. Either way, it was still a lot of fun to do and I received applause from the audience. If I decide to do it next year, I think I will try finding some sort of microphone for my accordion. If I remember, I’ll try to upload the video to this forum.

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