This week, Clutha River Cruises owner Steve Toyer flew back to Alexandra from Australia for the festival, only to learn he was not allowed to display his Land Cruiser and large cruise-boat in the parade.
He tried entering it in the truck parade but his entry was not accepted, and he was not allowed in the vintage-car procession either.
He said he was surprised and disappointed as the parade was for everyone, and children really enjoyed seeing all the different types of vehicles.
"If the Blossom Festival is to promote Alexandra as itself and as a destination for tourists, then surely anyone who is operating a tourist attraction in the local area should be allowed to participate in the Blossom Festival."
Other businesses have also expressed disappointment that they are being barred this year.
Dave Ramsay, from Grant Ward Nissan, said he had been surprised to hear commercial vehicles were not being accepted.
On the opposite side was Jo Davidson, from Davidson Honda.
She was happy there would be no commercial vehicles.
"It's become too commercialised and people are using it as free advertising. Perhaps if they limited it to one vehicle per company then that would be fine . . . At least, it [the absence of the vehicles] might just speed things up a bit."
Festival organising committee spokeswoman Karin Bowen said the committee had decided early that commercial vehicles would be banned.
"The one thing that kept coming up after last year's parade was that the parade was too long and boring with all the commercial vehicles, so we decided that they would be excluded this year."
The committee was trying to promote more community involvement and was encouraging businesses to work with community groups, in which cases they could use their commercial vehicles to tow community-based floats.
Businesses were told they were only allowed one commercial vehicle each last year but many had more than one, and some had four or five, Mrs Bowen said.
"Businesses were also asked if they would consider making a donation, and only a handful did."
Trucks with signwriting were not a part of the ban as they were entered separately.
That procession was run by Truck Stop, of Dunedin.
Service manager Willie Rietma said entries were coming in thick and fast, and as many as 80 trucks could be registered by the cut-off time of 9am on the day of the parade.
