Tuesday 3 August 2010

Faces In The Crowd


Hundreds of thousands of people turn out for the annual Pride Parade in Vancouver.



From time to time I turn the camera away from the parade and toward the crowd.



How nuts is this?


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10 comments :

Elizabeth said...

Could you tell a little bit more about all these parades? The reason why they are held, the history of parades in Vancouver for instance.

Thanks.

Virginia said...

WEll it's pretty apparent what draws you to these parades W. And I'll bet you didn't blush once!
V

Wayne said...

Vancouver has had a reputation as 'no fun city' for a long time. I never thought of us as having a lot of parades.

The Pride Parade has been going on for perhaps 25 years. It's a very well done, heavily attended celebration now. In the early days it was lame.

There is a Canada Day Parade, Santa Claus Parade, and quite a few community parades such as Caribanna and the Pride Parade. Many of the parades the Carnival Band marches in are probably better described as processions.

V. you won't be seeing the photos that could make me blush.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I'll bite. Are you proud it's a parade, or throwing a parade because you're proud. And if the latter, of what?

Wayne said...

Ummmm KB, I'm not sure if my leg is being pulled or not. It's the Gay Pride Parade. The 'Gay' was dropped years ago. Apparently Vancouver has the largest Lesbian, Gay and Transgendered community in Canada. This doesn't come as news to most of us who live here but Toronto and Montreal are larger cities. Vancouver may have a reputation for tolerance but I'm not sure that's really the case.

BTW, my flickr page has never had more hits than it's had since I posted these parade photos.

Genie -- Paris and Beyond said...

Wayne, is the guy in the group photo trying to hide his face? What's up with that?

In Mobile, we don't call it a parade unless beads, candy and moon-pies are thrown. I think that all parades, except the military type, have acquiesced to the moon-pie requirement. hehehe

Wayne said...

Genie, I wondered if he was hiding his face. It doesn't make any sense so I'm going to give him the befit of the doubt and assume it was just the way I captured the moment.

I have no clue what a moon pie is. You bring up a good point. This is really just a northern version of a Mardis Gras Parade.

Elizabeth said...

Thanks for explaining. This parade is like the gay-parade on the channels in Amsterdam. 'Funny' enough Amsterdam has also the name of being very tolerable. Sadly people are still beaten up regularly for their sexual perverance.

Virginia said...

"no clue what a Moon Pie is" . Quelle surprise. Good grief W.
V

Genie -- Paris and Beyond said...

Virginia and Wayne -- Here is a link and you can also google moon pie (and moon pie song) to read more. During Mardi Gras they are bought by the case and wrapped individually in silver (mylar?) they make a beautiful sight as 144 of them fly off a float to the waiting crowd below. Love it!

http://alabama-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/moon_pie_mania