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From the City’s website:

Labor Day Parade

The City of Gaithersburg celebrates the “unofficial” end of summer with its 69th Annual Labor Day Parade Monday, September 3, 2007 at 1 p.m. The parade will wind through the streets of Olde Towne Gaithersburg, including East Diamond and Russell Avenues.

Exciting participants in this year’s rain-or-shine parade include Bolivian dancers, the Tai Yim lion dancers, Bugs Bunny, Batman, Celebrity Head TV Stars, antique highwheelers, African drummers and dancers, and an assortment of fire engines, high school marching bands, giant balloons, horses, clowns and more.

Gaithersburg Middle School is the 2007 recipient of the annual Labor Day Community School Award. The principal, Carol Goddard, and the school are being recognized for the following accomplishments:

• Raising $1,040 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s “Pennies for Patients”,
• Collecting over 1,600 cans for Manna Food Center’s Holiday Drive, and
• Partnering with the GMS autism class to coordinate Autism Awareness Month activities.

Free parking is available in the Olde Towne garage, located at the corner of Olde Towne and South Summit Avenues. Handicap parking is located behind the Victor Litz store on the north side of Diamond Avenue, and behind the Shell station on South Summit Avenue. A shuttle bus will also be provided from the Lakeforest Shopping Center transit station to Gaithersburg Elementary School beginning at noon.

For more information contact 301-258-6350 or parksrec@gaithersburgmd.gov.

Editor’s Note: The City Police Department has ordered that NO MEDIA VEHICLES will be allowed up to the parade route.

According to the Washington Post,

President Bush swooped into Southern Maryland [Monday] to mark Labor Day with a call to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign oil and develop technologies to help American workers and businesses compete in the changing global marketplace.

Bush heralded the 4.7 percent national unemployment rate as a “good sign” for workers in a speech centered on the domestic economy. The president, speaking at the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education in Piney Point, also urged lawmakers to make his tax cuts permanent.

But on a day considered the launching point of the fall election season, Maryland’s top two Republicans — Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele — did not appear with the president in the St. Mary’s County town. Their absence quickly became political fodder for Democrats, who accused the Republican officeholders of dodging the unpopular president even as they allow him to raise money for Ehrlich’s bid for reelection and Steele’s campaign for the U.S. Senate.

[…]

I think that’s a bit much to make out of something simple — the Governor, whoever it is, frequently makes it to the Gaithersburg parade, and if anything this amounted to attention-grabbing by the President. If the President wanted to be seen with Ehrlich & Steele, he could have come to Gaithersburg. Doesn’t he like parades? I can say that I saw both the Governor and Lt. Governor march by; I saw a lot of appreciation being expressed and didn’t see anyone asking why they weren’t at the President’s side…

It’s almost time for the annual Labor Day Parade. Given that it is a major election year for County, State and US offices — pretty much everything but President — with many of the races wide open, it should be a long parade. If you’ve never come for the parade before, expect it to be pretty lively, especially near the intersection of Diamond and Summit Avenues, where they set up the reviewing stand and you can expect all the bands and dancers to perform. If you want to keep track of your kids, or just want a quieter experience, come reasonably early and sit somewhere along Russell Avenue, preferably somewhere near Asbury Methodist Village; there’s lots of open grass where you can spread out blankets and lawn chairs, although the bands do start to get kind of tired by that point and it’s hit or miss as to whether they’re going to play in front of you. If you want to be down near Diamond & Summit, park in the city parking garage off Summit & Olde Towne Aves. If you’re headed for Russell, park in the neighborhoods along there (Brookes, Walker, Maryland, Montgomery) or at the Mall.

Update: Here’s an article in the Gazette about the parade.