Winter Garden city manager says dance group sneaked into Christmas parade

After an Orlando dance group reportedly crashed the Winter Garden Christmas parade, city officials say that changes in security measures are coming.

The group, Unity and Diversity Dancers (UDD), has been at the forefront of discussion regarding the parade, which took place Saturday, Dec. 7. Winter Garden City Manager Bollhoefer said the group played music with vulgar language along the parade route, and that it was not authorized to be in the parade in the first place.

"One, this group was not registered in our parade," Bollhoefer said. "They (sneaked) into the parade and they put on an act which had foul language, totally inappropriate for a Christmas parade."

Parade-goers took to social media to express their displeasure at the group's act, some saying that even the group's dance moves were inappropriate. Others shared video clips of the group's performance, which appear to show its members marching along to music with vulgar language and swear words.

Bollhoefer said the city is scrutinizing its security and has determined how the group was able to enter the parade. Changes will be coming to ensure it doesn't happen again, he said.

"We’re going to take a look at our security measures to ensure that it doesn't happen in the future," he said. "We figured out exactly what they did, we looked at the map and everything. The trouble is, is no one suspects a group of small children to sneak into a Christmas parade."

UDD also performed at Ocoee's Christmas parade just a few hours earlier with similar music. The Ocoee Lions Club confirmed that the group was registered for this parade, but declined to comment further. UDD did not respond for comment.