Fold My Laundry Please

Portland, Oregon is known as "The City of Roses".  Every year it has a huge Rose Festival complete with tours of Navy ships and a Grand Floral Parade.  I’ve heard a lot about this parade since we’ve moved here.  All of the floats are made up of only organic materials such as fruits, flowers, etc.  It’s supposed to be huge!  The parade is this Saturday, and I’ve been really looking forward to it because I LOVE parades.  My husband has even reluctantly planned on attending despite the fact that he hates parades.  I was checking the parade route online this evening and seeing if there were any recommendations about how early to get there in order to park relatively close when I noticed that there is a $30 per person admission fee to see the parade!  What’s up with that?!?!  There is no way I’m going to pay $30 per person to sit in a lawn chair desperately hoping the other people will stay out of your way so that you don’t end up having to stand throughout the entire thing!  Is it normal to charge admission for the big parades?  If I wanted to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade some year, would there be an admission fee?  And how exactly do they regulate it?  Are they going to have the entire parade route blocked off with gates you have to go through just to reach the curbside?  I realize that parades cost tons of cash to put on, especially the big ones, but I kind of thought they were supposed to be free events designed to get people into the city to spend their money at local businesses, museums, etc.  Silly, silly, girl!