VALPARAISO | There's just something about the rhythmic cadence of a marching band and the sound of sirens that mesmerizes children young and old alike.

Thousands lined Lincolnway Avenue in downtown Valparaiso on Saturday morning for the 30th annual Popcorn Festival parade, which featured some 80 entries ranging from elaborate popcorn-adorned floats to Porter and Lake county high school marching bands.

Front row seats were a luxury, except for those seasoned parade veterans who planned ahead.

"We were here by 7 a.m.," said Barb Kuder, of Valparaiso. "We like to get here early. We got the kids registered in the race, we had breakfast. We're making a day of it."

Enjoying the Orville Redenbacher Parade with her daughter Tracy Marshall and grandsons Tyler, 7, and Ethan, 6, has become somewhat of a family tradition.

"We've been here every year," Kuder said. "We've brought them since they were babies."

Kuder's daughter Tracy said she can remember sitting along the parade route when she was a child. She said bringing her sons to the parade keeps that tradition going.

As parents and grandparents sat in chairs along the sidewalks, children were on the curbs, anxiously waiting for parade participants to shower them with candy and other trinkets.

Tyler and Ethan Marshall, who both ran in the Lit'l Kernel Puff Race just before the parade, said they liked playing on some of the inflatable attractions set up along Lafayette Street. But that might have changed by the time a red, white and blue Union Township fire engine passed the crowd, blasting its horn and putting a huge smile on their faces.

"It was so loud," Tyler said.

Dennis Robison, a member of the festival committee for the past eight years, said Saturday morning's crowds were a good indication that attendance at the festival would be up this year.

"The weather's helping," he said.

Robison said the festival's downtown layout makes it easy for families to spend a day at the various activities centered around the Porter County Courthouse.

"You have some people that come here just for the parade, you have people who will come and listen to the music all day and you get some people who will come and shop -- even before everything's open," Robison said.

The nationally recognized festival, which started as a small community celebration three decades ago, draws 60,000 to 75,000 people to the downtown area every year.