The Annual Seattle Fremont Solstice Parade

It's hard to put into words what you experience when you attend the Fremont Solstice Fair and Parade in Seattle. The Fremont district is quirky in itself, but every year the best of the weird show up to turn their ideas into substance and their bodies into human art.

This was the first year I managed to make it to the event. Imagine that--Living here all my life and never attending such an event before, but yet knowing full well how zany and cool it is. For whatever reason I just never made it. Maybe there was something else going on that same day, maybe it was not great weather, maybe I just forgot about it until it was too late. Add to that the full knowledge of the madness of traffic to and from the area, and I probably chose not to go several times just for that reason alone.

Yesterday I finally made it.

Although I dearly wanted to take Suzie with me, she had obligations both yesterday and today and couldn't make it. It was truly a photographer's bonanza. Never have I been so inclined to spend all day at an event, just wandering and taking pictures. I guess the timing was right for it considering that I'm so into my photography hobby and the number of pictures I can take these days is practically unlimited. Well, although I could have stayed all day, that was not to be the case. Again I was struck with the same notion that I had during my vacation trip with Sarah last summer when I decided then that she was not anywhere near the adventurous type. Sarah is not a good partner for my kind of adventures. Although I love her dearly she is just not fun to travel with. You can just see it in her face all the time--The pained expression that, punctuated with an occasional burst of interest, reflects the fact that being there at that particular place and time is not convenient or fun. I'll be first to admit that attending some events can be tedious and you have to have a certain attitude to make it pleasurable. Sarah apparently hasn't got the right attitude for anything that takes her out of her comfort zone.

Anyway, back to the event.

Fortunately I know Seattle well, so given the traffic and such, we were able to approach the area from the best direction. The bad part was that because we were less than an hour from the start of the parade we had to park a good mile or so away. That's the trouble with parades and similar events--There are no parking lots like fairgrounds have. It's first come, first served--All residential and city street parallel parking. In the process of walking towards the area of the parade we saw quite a few interesting people. We probably saw a good half dozen naked bike riders go past us at various times, their bodies turned into a painted canvas. By the time we got to the beginning area of the parade where the floats and other interesting performers were staging, the nude bicyclists had just departed. Alas, we were still a half a block away from seeing that strange and colorful visual close enough for pictures. I don't know how many there were, but I'm sure there were a couple hundred easily. Some were painted head to toe, some just had designs and markings, and others were fully nude. Basically full nude to fully painted, and everything in between.

We continued walking and walking, trying to find a good spot to view the parade from. We still had a half hour or so before the parade actually started, and we used that entire time searching. It was at that time that Sarah first became annoyed. She was voicing her desire to get off the street. I think she was totally embarrassed to be walking on the street right in front of everyone, but that was really the only option. The sidewalks were totally jammed and nothing was moving. It's not like we were the only people walking on the street--That's pretty much how it had to be done if you wanted to move. At one point I detoured off the street and onto the sidewalk. That was a mistake. After a little of that I took us back to the street. The temperature yesterday was in the upper 70's, and when you add wall to wall bodies in a crowd scenario it felt like 95. Anyway, we finally found us a decent place and she lightened up a bit. There was actually a nice, wide concrete railing we could hoist our butts up onto and that helped us cool down a bit too. We had to be careful though--It was probably 30 feet down behind us.

Sarah shot about 200 pictures with her camera, and by the time we were finished I had taken 369 myself. The difference was that I was taking them all the time and she only took them from our parade viewing point. My favorite pictures are all the ones that I took before and after the parade. They truly captured some of the freedom of expression that the Fremont Solstice Fair is all about. Thousands and thousands of people, all out there to see or be seen. I only wish I could have stayed there longer. I missed you Suz!