Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales trotting into Kent this week

By RICK ARMON

KENT —The world-famous Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales will be in town Thursday. The draft horses are expected to arrive downtown around 4:30 p.m. and be stationed near Home Savings Bank on North Water Street.

They will parade through downtown — weather permitting —then be on display.

The horses, featured for years in successful beer advertising campaigns, last visited the city in October 2007. That stop attracted thousands of people, and organizers are hoping for similar results.

Joseph Jordan, an Anheuser-Busch InBev key account manager who lives in Rootstown Township, arranged the visit with the help of the Main Street Kent organization.

The Clydesdales, which weigh about 2,000 pounds each, travel by custom-made tractor-trailer. They will be outfitted and hitched to a red, white and gold Studebaker-built beer wagon, a process that takes about an hour and a half.

The parade route will be along Water, Main, Franklin, College, Erie and Depeyster streets.

The horses will not parade if it’s raining. If it does rain, only one horse will be on display under a tent, organizers said.

A limited amount of Clydesdale merchandise will be available outside Home Savings Bank.

The Kent visit won’t be the only opportunity for people to see the horses this year in the Akron area.

The Clydesdales also are scheduled to appear at the 62nd annual Italian-American Council Festival at Lock 3 in downtown Akron. The event runs July 10-12.

Specific details for that appearance have not been finalized.

The Clydesdales made their debut for Anheuser-Busch in 1933. August A. Busch Jr. presented the horses and beer wagon to his father to commemorate the first bottle of beer brewed in St. Louis after Prohibition.

For more details about the Kent visit, call (330) 677-8000 or go online to: www.mainstreetkent.org.