Don't miss this parade next year, if you are coming to the U.S. in the late Spring.
In Seattle, on the Saturday nearest the Summer Solstice, there is a parade in the Fremont neighborhood that is led off by half an hour of naked bike riders painted to look as if they have clothes on.
My
comment on the parade is that this Lefty parade gets much right and one
key ingredient wrong. The right things about this parade are that (1) it
limits everything to no motors (except the rock band electric-generator) which
means nearly everything is handmade by locals, (2) there are no commercial
floats and (3) no politicians or candidates. All of which brings the parade and the excitement much closer
to a bacchanal and less like a moving advertisement. I like
bacchanalia.
The shortcoming is the blind Lefty Ludditism also bans any signage. The consequence is that there is virtually no way to know the institutional structures behind the parade participants. You don't know which bars got their patrons to support them and march, which Norwegian clubs really have loyal members, which high school has a good band, etc.
Institutions are important to intelligent people.
Two groups got through the blind Lefty Luddite rules: the Hari Krishnas who marched chanting their highly recognizable chant and a group of Masons who carried cardboard cut outs of calipers, triangles and compasses. Good going, you rebels who know the true spirit of bacchanalia.
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