May Day Parade and Festival
May. 5th, 2002 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrToday was the annual May Day parade and pageant sponsored by the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater at Powderhorn Park. They do the whole thing with volunteers, scads of kids, donated money, and lots of paper mache and poster paint.
First the parade: we saw, among other things: people wearing butterfly wings, people dressed in ribbons, flowers and leaves, people riding hugely tall recumbent bicycles, "crows" and "eagles" created by frames of paper-mache and fluttering streamers over bicycles, scraps of ribbon, pop bottles and bicycle intertubes, Morris Dancers, rock bands, accordionists, people playing music on found instruments (including garbage cans and a power saw) children wearing giant hats made of painted cardboard, a huge pyramid that rolled down the street, with flaps that opened on its sides, revealing a marionette show, a float intended as a model of the world on the back of a huge blue turtle, a woman riding in a wagon that had been converted by painted cardboard into a lotus blossom, a woman riding in a wheel chair, her hair woven with ribbons like a goddess, dogs wearing tutus, people in dread locks, people with tattoos, people in tie dye, drummers, babies dressed as birds pulled in wagons that had been decorated to look like birds' nests, balloons, atheists, humanists, naturalists wearing barrels with "let's party" stenciled over the top, the Anti-Imperialist cheerleaders, Mexican folk dancers, bands that ran around in circles and then lay down in the street to play their music, politicians, people marching for causes like Women against Military Madness, the Green Party, End Sanctions on Iraq group, Boy Scouts for Everyone. The puppets are weird, wonderful, and strangely moving: I felt tears coming to my eyes at certain points.
(I'm cribbing part of this description of the ceremony from a message that Terry Garey sent out about it last year): The theme always runs along the lines of Good is better than Evil because it's nicer and the stock two story puppets every year are Sky (a huge eagle) Prairie (A woman holding a bowl of greenery) River ( a blue and white being) and Woods (sort of like a giant owl with bark), the Sun (red and yellow and benevolent) and the Tree of Life (doves, branches, all woven into a giant person).
So the general plot, as you may recall from previous years, is that goodness (this year represented by the lotus blossom children and the orange and red people) is threatened by Nastiness (gray beings who represent war, violence, rapacious globalization--think of them as the Gray Meanies). The Gray Meanies threaten the orange and red people and the flower children, and the world groans in despair, but then a huge white bird creature ( it took six people to fly this puppet/kite in the high winds we had) helped a lot, but nonetheless, more help was needed.
Help, we call upon the Sun!
This year, since the winds were so high, the canoes carrying the Sun across the lake only took about 5 minutes. Such a brave sight, with their waving red and gold flags,
escorting the Sun ashore while we all cheered and clapped.
The Sun rescued the Tree of Life
(which rises from its recumbent position on the ground and spreads its arms, towering twenty feet high), the eagles and flower children (made of mere cardboard and ribbons and paper mache, but strangely alive), the giant sunflowers on stilts (I don't know, either, they were just there, and danced very nicely) and everyone else had a rip-roaring good time and we all sang: "You Are My Sunshine", like we always do, children laughing and crying, dogs barking, adults on key and off key.
Another nice touch is that in spite of the fact that thunderstorms were predicted, the bad weather held off and in fact the sun came out just as the canoes touched the lake shore. It was glorious.
Fiona was dumbfounded when I told her that this was the only city in the country that had a parade like this. "No wonder so many people come," she said, and added that she was so sorry for people who don't get to see it. To give you an idea of what the experience is like, click here to see the pictures from last year's parade and ceremony: after going to the page, choose "parade photos" and then "ceremony photos" to see the slide show.
Hoping your flowers and spirits are as happy as mine. Happy May Day and peace to all.
Cheers,
Peg
First the parade: we saw, among other things: people wearing butterfly wings, people dressed in ribbons, flowers and leaves, people riding hugely tall recumbent bicycles, "crows" and "eagles" created by frames of paper-mache and fluttering streamers over bicycles, scraps of ribbon, pop bottles and bicycle intertubes, Morris Dancers, rock bands, accordionists, people playing music on found instruments (including garbage cans and a power saw) children wearing giant hats made of painted cardboard, a huge pyramid that rolled down the street, with flaps that opened on its sides, revealing a marionette show, a float intended as a model of the world on the back of a huge blue turtle, a woman riding in a wagon that had been converted by painted cardboard into a lotus blossom, a woman riding in a wheel chair, her hair woven with ribbons like a goddess, dogs wearing tutus, people in dread locks, people with tattoos, people in tie dye, drummers, babies dressed as birds pulled in wagons that had been decorated to look like birds' nests, balloons, atheists, humanists, naturalists wearing barrels with "let's party" stenciled over the top, the Anti-Imperialist cheerleaders, Mexican folk dancers, bands that ran around in circles and then lay down in the street to play their music, politicians, people marching for causes like Women against Military Madness, the Green Party, End Sanctions on Iraq group, Boy Scouts for Everyone. The puppets are weird, wonderful, and strangely moving: I felt tears coming to my eyes at certain points.
(I'm cribbing part of this description of the ceremony from a message that Terry Garey sent out about it last year): The theme always runs along the lines of Good is better than Evil because it's nicer and the stock two story puppets every year are Sky (a huge eagle) Prairie (A woman holding a bowl of greenery) River ( a blue and white being) and Woods (sort of like a giant owl with bark), the Sun (red and yellow and benevolent) and the Tree of Life (doves, branches, all woven into a giant person).
So the general plot, as you may recall from previous years, is that goodness (this year represented by the lotus blossom children and the orange and red people) is threatened by Nastiness (gray beings who represent war, violence, rapacious globalization--think of them as the Gray Meanies). The Gray Meanies threaten the orange and red people and the flower children, and the world groans in despair, but then a huge white bird creature ( it took six people to fly this puppet/kite in the high winds we had) helped a lot, but nonetheless, more help was needed.
Help, we call upon the Sun!
This year, since the winds were so high, the canoes carrying the Sun across the lake only took about 5 minutes. Such a brave sight, with their waving red and gold flags,
escorting the Sun ashore while we all cheered and clapped.
The Sun rescued the Tree of Life
(which rises from its recumbent position on the ground and spreads its arms, towering twenty feet high), the eagles and flower children (made of mere cardboard and ribbons and paper mache, but strangely alive), the giant sunflowers on stilts (I don't know, either, they were just there, and danced very nicely) and everyone else had a rip-roaring good time and we all sang: "You Are My Sunshine", like we always do, children laughing and crying, dogs barking, adults on key and off key.
Another nice touch is that in spite of the fact that thunderstorms were predicted, the bad weather held off and in fact the sun came out just as the canoes touched the lake shore. It was glorious.
Fiona was dumbfounded when I told her that this was the only city in the country that had a parade like this. "No wonder so many people come," she said, and added that she was so sorry for people who don't get to see it. To give you an idea of what the experience is like, click here to see the pictures from last year's parade and ceremony: after going to the page, choose "parade photos" and then "ceremony photos" to see the slide show.
Hoping your flowers and spirits are as happy as mine. Happy May Day and peace to all.
Cheers,
Peg
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
smiling happily
Date: 2002-05-05 07:25 pm (UTC)*wishes she lived in a city half so cool*
Happy May Day to you!