A crowd of people in its hundreds are pouring in to Tauranga's CBD for this year's Trustpower Santa Parade.

The annual parade, which kicks off at 11am, will feature colourful community floats, lively bands, marching teams, acrobatic groups and lots of colourful characters.

The parade will start from 2nd Avenue and march down Devonport Road then along The Strand before finishing at Harrington Street.

Sunlive reporter Rosalie Crawford says it's looking like it's going to be a brilliant parade as the weather is picture perfect beautiful and there's a sea of happy, smiley faces already.

'There's a lot of young people and many families who've already arrived and looking to secure themselves a great possie to watch the parade from, some people have even brought their own chairs.

'The weather is quite warm this morning but there's plenty of shade under the business awnings, that's if people can find spot, it's looking like the CBD is going to be chock-full of people.”

SunLive has also caught wind that supervillain, The Joker is in town and is plotting to blow up Santa! Zoinks! Will the Clown Prince of Crime get away with his dastardly fiendish plot?

Following the parade people are being invited to hang around the waterfront for some fun and rides being provided by The Little Entertainment Company.

Tauranga City deputy mayor Kelvin Clout and his wife Kathryn watching parade on The Strand.

From left: India Lees, 4, Alex Roberts, 3, Logan Roberts, 5, and Matai Lees, 6, waiting for the parade to get underway.

The Grant family from Oropi.

Will the Joker get away with his fiendish plan to blow up Santa...

...or will Batman and Batgirl foil his plan and save the day?

The Mad Hatter will also make an appearance during the Trustpower Santa Parade.