Pretty amazing what the Founder’s Day celebration has become, isn’t it?

The once defunct event is a big draw downtown this weekend, and Saturday’s parade was noticeably more crowded than last year — both in the marching units and along the sidewalks. The combination with the Italian Festival has been powerful, and the event is clearly a driving force in downtown business schedules.

Despite a parade of store closures this summer, this weekend produced some suddenly quick grand openings. The new restaurant Opa! opened to good preliminary reviews this week, even if it is Greek instead of Italian.

The Treehouse in the Glen toy store took several months to open despite original predictions that it would open its doors in May. It opened just two weeks ago — and not even early cash register computer glitches could keep the store from having its own unit in the parade.

Most curiously, though, is the lightning-fast opening of the Athletic Performance, which replaced Urban Sports almost overnight. The WG Resident on September 16 that landlord Michael Mulcahy had not confirmed rumors that another athletic store was in the works. But on September 18, he published the name of the new store online:

Athletic Performance from Los Gatos will open a new athletic footwear and clothing store in the former Urban Sports …

As one of the building’s owners, I am very excited to have AP come to WG. So if you have athletic shoe needs, especially running shoes and attire, get in their soon. They hope to be open by September 27 when the Founders Day Parade and Italian Family Festa hit WG.

That was quick … although the store is open with very little stock on its first weekend.