West Monroe's Fourth of July Drone Show Is Flying on Christmas Parade Day. Here's How December 5 Fits Together

At 6 p.m. on Saturday, December 5, 2026, the patriotic drone show West Monroe planned for the Fourth of July will go up over downtown, on the same day as the Kiwanis Christmas Parade and Christmas on the River. Fireworks follow right after it.

This changes the plan for the whole day. Parade day already ends with fireworks on the river. This year, July's big show has been added to the same evening, and its 6 p.m. start overlaps with a ballet gala, a museum open house and a downtown Monroe festival. The question for that Saturday is what you'll be doing at 6 o'clock.

The Show Was Built for July, and It Keeps the July Theme

According to KNOE's July 22 report, the City of West Monroe moved its July 4 drone show to Saturday, Dec. 5, at 6 p.m. in Downtown West Monroe. Graphic Packaging International is the title sponsor. The show is now part of the Christmas on the River Festival and Kiwanis Club Parade Day. It "will keep its original patriotic theme," and a fireworks show will start as soon as the drones finish.

The original plan shows what the show was meant to be. KNOE's July 1 preview of the Independence Day celebration called it the "250th Drone and Fireworks Show over the Twin Cities" and scheduled it for 9 p.m. It was the last event of a day that included food trucks in Alley Park, a parade presented by the Krewe of Janus, and a patriotic concert with Legacy Strings and the Daughters of the American Revolution. In July, the plan was to launch the drones over the Ouachita River near the Railroad Bridge, across from the city's Riverfront Park and Marina, and to shoot the fireworks from the Endom Bridge. The city also planned a restricted area near the drone launch zone.

The city hasn't said whether December will use the same setup. The fireworks location is the one detail that matches what's already been announced for December. The tourism bureau's holiday guide says the annual Christmas fireworks are "shot from the Endom Bridge at dark," and it says this year's show adds a special drone show.

The biggest practical change is the time. A show planned for 9 p.m. on a summer night now starts at 6 p.m. in early December, before most people have eaten dinner.

The Parade Theme Already Fits

The parade carries the same anniversary. The Kiwanis Club of Greater Ouachita's 2026 theme is "Gingerbread Jubilee: 250 Years of Sweet Freedom," and KNOE reported that organizers chose it to tie the holiday celebration to America's 250th anniversary.

So both the floats and the drones will mark the same anniversary on the same day, about five months after July 4.

Some details are still missing. The Discover Monroe West Monroe parade listing gives the date and says the parade runs through downtown Monroe and West Monroe. The route map it links to is labeled for 2023, and no 2026 start time has been posted. The tourism bureau's holiday guide says only that the parade "will roll through the Twin Cities that afternoon." If you usually stake out a spot on the same corner every year, wait for the Kiwanis Club or the city to post this year's route before you count on it.

How the Day Fills Up, Hour by Hour

The table below shows how full the day is. Each item has a published time or a published date of December 5.

The Twin City Ballet gala page lists the gala at Monroe Civic Center, 401 Lea Joyner Memorial Expressway. The breakfast and matinee page says children 2 and under get into the morning performance free under the stated conditions. The tourism bureau's guide also lists the 2026 Bawcomville Redneck Christmas Parade in the same Festival Day lineup, where, it says, you might catch ramen noodles or toilet paper.

Santa's Christmas Village at the Northeast Louisiana Children's Museum, 323 Walnut Street, is also listed to open on December 5 and run through December 21, at $8 for ages 2 and up on weekdays and $15 on weekends.

Everything Lands at 6 O'Clock

The table shows the conflict. The drone show starts at 6, the Sterlington parade starts at 6, the ballet gala starts at 6:30, and the Biedenharn is open from 5 to 8. Only one of those fits into a single evening.

Some of the other events have other dates. The Biedenharn Christmas Open House runs three nights, December 3 through 5, from 5 to 8 p.m. It's free, and the Monroe Garden Study League decorates the house. Going Thursday or Friday leaves Saturday evening free for the river. The ballet's 11 a.m. matinee covers the same season without the 6:30 curtain. The gala is only on Saturday night, so anyone set on the gala will likely miss the drones.

Downtown Monroe has its own plan for the evening. The Christmas on Main listing says to "cap off the evening with Christmas Fireworks on the River at the RiverMarket, featuring a spectacular drone and fireworks display." That festival runs until 7 p.m., so the 6 p.m. show falls during its last hour. The same listing names a first-year event, the inaugural Kids Gingerbread House Building Competition, which also ties back to the parade's gingerbread theme.

Taken together, the listings point the evening on both sides of the river toward the same piece of sky. The bureau's guide suggests getting a seat at an outdoor table at a riverside restaurant for the fireworks. With a 6 p.m. start, that means arriving well before the usual dinner hour on a Saturday when the parade will already have brought crowds downtown.

Downtown West Monroe's Season Around That Saturday

December 5 is the biggest night of downtown West Monroe's holiday season, and the tourism bureau lists events on both sides of it. These listings don't print a year, so check each one with its organizer before you plan around it. The dates and days of the week below match the 2026 calendar.

• Sunday, Nov. 1, 1 to 5 p.m.: Antique Alley Holiday Open House, Downtown West Monroe.
• Thursday, Nov. 19, 5 to 8 p.m.: Champagne Stroll on Trenton Street, free.
• Nov. 21 through Dec. 31, 5:30 to 10 p.m.: Land of Lights at Cotton and Pine Streets.
• Monday, Nov. 30, 6 to 8 p.m.: West Monroe Christmas tree lighting at City Hall, 2305 N. 7th Street.
• Friday, Dec. 11, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.: Children's Lighted Bike Parade, Downtown West Monroe.
• Saturday, Dec. 12, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Christmas Market on the Alley at Alley Park, 250 Trenton Street, free.
• Saturday, Dec. 12, 6 to 9 p.m.: Christmas at Kiroli, 820 Kiroli Road, free, with more nights listed on Dec. 13, 18, 19, 24, 25 and 26.

Land of Lights is the one that matters most for December 5. If the listing holds, the lights on Cotton and Pine will have been on for two weeks by parade day, which gives anyone who arrives early for the drone show somewhere nearby to walk while they wait.

Across the river, the Biedenharn adds one more evening the following week. Elsong Aglow, a garden stroll, runs December 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Riverside Gate, 2006 Riverside Drive, for $5 per person. Before any of that, the Kiwanis Club of Greater Ouachita holds its 71st Pancake Day on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at First Methodist Church on Loop Road. As KNOE reported, it runs from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., tickets are $10, and the proceeds support children and people in need in Ouachita Parish and Northeast Louisiana. The same club is putting on the December 5 parade.

The date to plan around is Saturday, December 5, at 6 p.m. Settle the rest of that day around that hour, and move the Biedenharn and the ballet to the dates that leave it open.

If you have family coming in for parade weekend and want to talk through which side of the river works best for your group that evening, I'm glad to help. John Michael Sampognaro lives and works in Monroe and West Monroe, and I'm always happy to talk about what's going on downtown. Let's connect.