We had breakfast at Aura today - best bennies in town IMO. On the walk home we noticed a lot of lawn chairs being setup along Belleville St. and heard it was for the Pride Parade from Noon to 1PM. We were headed to Hudson's Bay to do some shopping so I found a window on the second floor. Purely by accident it was our first Victoria parade. Here are some highlights and observations. But first let me say it was packed! After attending the recent Car Free Day i'd say downtown can be really vibrant and fun.
- Whatever happened to real parade floats? Trucks/cars with some balloons or ribbons attached is pretty lame. So I use the term "float" below loosely.
- Fancy Carnival type costumes were practically non-existent, although I did spot one!
- Participants were kinda grouped. The political group had the Greens, the Liberals, and the NDP. The Conservatives were nowhere to be found.
- There were a lot of churches participating.
- The biggest rainbow flag belonged to "The Flag Shop".
- The longest rainbow flag belonged to "The First Unitarian Church of Victoria".
- The hottest float belonged to Camosun College. Although the Richard Mar School of Hairstyling was a close runner-up.
- The best float without a doubt belonged to Lure Restaurant. They made their truck look like a boat and had the coolest rainbow colored balloon entourage following just behind it - really great.
Click through to flickr for the larger original images.
Waiting for the parade to start:
One of only a few Carnival type costumes:
The biggest Rainbow flag:
The longest Rainbow flag:
The hottest floats:
The best float:
The throngs following the last float and the aftermath: