In addition to observing its 90th anniversary, yesterday's annual King Kamehameha Celebration Floral Parade marked a milestone of another sort:

It was the 10th anniversary of the year when state funding for the parade dried up. Organizers and parade fans alike were convinced 1996 would be the Kamehameha parade's last hurrah.

It almost was.

Somehow, America's only parade honoring a king has managed to scrape up funding each year since, but parade director B.J. Allen concedes that pulling it off has been touch and go.

Higher costs, fewer volunteers and security restrictions have meant cutting corners.

Yesterday's parade was one of the smallest in memory, with only about 45 entries. Allen, who's the third-generation parade organizer of her family, said the smallest previous number of entries she could remember was 60.

"This one's about about half the size of the normal parades that we've had in the past," said Allen. "A big reason for the decline in numbers is expenses."

Still, the parade was comparably spectacular if you hark back to the first Kamehameha parade, held on June 12, 1916.

That one started at 'A'ala Park, moved along King Street and ended at the statue of Kameha-meha the Great across from the 'Iolani Palace. It featured no floats but had two bands, a riding club and a procession of members of various Hawaiian societies in ceremonial attire.

Yesterday, under sunny skies and light trade winds, there were few complaints among parade-goers. Perennial favorite entries included the Royal Hawaiian Band, the Marine Forces Pacific Band, Polynesian Cultural Center dancers, assorted colorful floats and horseback pa'u riders representing five of the eight Hawaiian Islands.

And, for the first time, the event featured a musical group as grand marshals — The Makaha Sons.

"This is a homegrown event, with a variety of things to see, and it's put on by the community," said Ed Chung, 57, who has been coming to Kamehameha parades since he was a kid and who laid claim yesterday to the very first makai seat at the corner of King and Richards streets when the parade began.

"Something like this keeps the culture and heritage going. This is a beautiful day in the greatest place in the world — I might as well be right here."

Nearby, Roy Koenig had pitched a beach chair and was obviously enjoying his first Kamehameha parade in 43 years.

"The last time I saw this parade, I was in it — playing the B-flat clarinet with the Kamehameha Schools marching band," said Koenig. "That was with the Class of '63. Sixty-three!"

Koenig said he recently moved into the neighborhood and was checking his mail early in the morning when he heard the commotion, "and I go, 'What is going on?' "

Koenig had a counterpart in Jeff Schneider at the opposite end of the parade route. For Schneider, 48, of Jacksonville, Fla., it was his first viewing of a Kamehameha Day parade since he was a pupil at Koko Head Elementary School 36 years ago.

"I saw these parades back then," said Schneider, who was in town for two weeks with his wife, Tess, and daughter, Morgan, 9. He'd briefed them on the importance of the man who was being honored.

This parade included three high school bands from the state of Missouri — Parkway Central, Pattonville and Rolla.

"It's been the event of a lifetime," said Mary Jo Underwood, an organizer with the Rolla High School band. She said the community and school spent 18 months raising the nearly $3 million it took to bring 155 band members and 40 chaperons to the parade and a one-week stay on O'ahu.

"Next time we do this, could we maybe have a band float?" wondered Rolla band member Katie Feakes, 17, who lugged her 50-pound tuba from downtown Honolulu to the parade's end at Monsarrat Avenue in Waikiki.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.