Hello, and welcome to complete coverage of the Bel Air July 4 Parade — and especially how you can apply to be a part of it.

Our next parade is Monday evening, July 4, 2011, beginning at 6:00 pm. Our theme for 2011 will be announced in late 2010 or early 2011.

The Bel Air Independence Day Committee has a vision of how our parade should look and feel. Participants in our parade are required to present themselves in a manner that is consistent with this vision.

First and foremost, we encourage all parade applicants to consider in advance how to "decorate" or craft their entry to conform not only to the general theme of an Independence Day Parade, but to the specific patriotic theme we choose each year for our parade. As noted above, for 2010, the theme was "America the Beautiful," and many floats and other units did a fantastic job of illustrating or embodying this — therefore we hope that parade applicants will find ways to illustrate our 2011 theme in what they plan to do.

Any parade applicant and most especially all parade participants (whose applications have been accepted), are cordially invited to ask any member of the Bel Air Independence Day Committee for ideas or suggestions about this. We love creativity and we applaud those who exercise it!

Your first step in applying to be a part of our parade is to read the complete Parade Rules, which you will find by selecting this link. After reading the rules, you will have the option of returning to this page or proceeding directly to the application forms.

To make it easy for you to apply for inclusion in the parade, we offer you these application options (select by clicking on the one you want):

1. Use our complete on-line application form, which sends to us via e-mail.
   
2. Go to this page, which is simply a printer-friendly application form for you to print out and fax or mail to us.
   
3. Download a complete, detailed PDF of the application form, which you can then print out and fax or mail to us.

Remember, however, that your application will most likely require a fee, according to the Parade Rules. At this time, the committee is unable to accept payments over the internet, so you will have to mail in the fee to us. If you apply on-line or via fax, don't forget to mail in your fee, because your application will not be processed until we receive it. The complete parade rules explain these fees (and how they work) in full.

If you have any questions about the form or about the parade that are not covered by the rules, or if you have a question about the application fee, please e-mail us or call 410-879-4245.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation, and we look forward to receiving your application for the Bel Air Independence Day Parade!