About 50,000 people are expected on the...

About 50,000 people are expected on the streets of Pasadena Sunday for the 15th Occasional Doo-Dah Parade, an annual rite of costumed giddiness and social satire.

“It’s one day of the year that people can be a little crazy,” said parade founder Peter Apanel, a public relations consultant who began the parade to counter the grand tradition of the Tournament of Roses. Among the 140 groups marching will be the Synchronized Briefcase Drill Team and acts satirizing everything from religion to surfers.

The theme of this year’s parade is saving neighborhood hangouts from gentrification. The message will be illustrated by Grand Marshal Ray Oldenburg’s float: The sociology professor from Florida will be accompanied by an entourage draped in memorial wreaths symbolizing neighborhood pubs, restaurants, coffee shops and beer joints that have been bulldozed in the name of urban renewal.

“These are the kinds of places that create a true sense of neighborhood,” Apanel said. “The parade owes its existence to a whole number of hangouts along the parade route,” which begins at the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and Union Street at noon, rain or shine.

From there, the one-mile parade route goes north on Fair Oaks, east on Holly Street, south on Raymond Avenue, west on Colorado Boulevard, south on Pasadena Avenue, east on Green Street, south on Fair Oaks and ends in Pasadena’s Central Park.

This year’s queen, dubbed “Second Hand Rose,” is Lila Johnson of Pasadena. The official band is Snotty Scotty and the Hankies.

The Doo-Dah Parade is scheduled to last two hours. Spectators should arrive early to find parking and a good spot to see the parade. But if rain or the comforts of home keep you from Old Pasadena, Channel 13 will carry the event live and repeat it that day at 8 p.m.