Twisting And Shouting At The Ferris Fest Parade

Today was the last day of Ferris Fest and to cap off the event, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, we were all invited to participate in the re-creation of the parade sequence from the movie.

You know the famous scene… it’s where Ferris Bueller commandeers a parade float for a lip synch rendition of Wayne Newton’s Danke Schoen and The Beatles’ Twist and Shout.

We were all sent word to meet at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago at 3pm. Despite a rocky and delayed start (the event team was so disorganized), everything got underway eventually.

I grabbed a spot right at the front and had an unobstructed view of all the actors greeting everyone, as they were strolling into the plaza.

That was followed by the South Shore Drill Team performing the entire full-length synchronized routine from the movie.

Look-a-like actors for Cameron and Sloane re-created the scene where Cameron thought Ferris had ditched them and then were shocked as all heck to hear Ferris’ voice come over the loud speaker:

Ladies and gentleman. you’re such a wonderful crowd. We’d like to play a little tune for you. It’s one of my personal favourites. And I’d like to dedicate it to a young man who doesn’t think he’s seen anything good today. Cameron Frye, this one’s for you.

Cue to the float with faux Ferris and the frauleins, lip synching and dancing up a storm. The crowd lapped it up and joined in on the merriment. It was so fun, that they did an encore – of the entire thing from the top!

I hung out afterwards and even got a couple of rad photos – one with Jonathan Schmock, the Chez Quis maitre d’ and one of the three 1961 Ferrari 250GT California replicars from the movie!