Street Parade 2005
Yesterday was Zurich's Street Parade, where the less than 400,000 inhabitants of Zurich balloon to over 1,000,000 dancing, scandalously dressed people ready to dance. A bunch of us Canadians decided to go all out, and I went and bought some hot pink hair dye, some blue face paint, a pink boa and blue lycra boxer shorts. Friday night I got a surprise call that Kyle had left Corfu earlier that day and was on his way to Baden to meet up for the parade. It ended up taking him 24 solid hours of travel, but he made it. On Saturday morning, we headed over to Kehl to get our costumes together. Kyle had nothing, but made the most of it by using extra hair dye and face paint. Travis had cut his hair in a Mohawk the night before and dyed it silver. Shane dressed up pretty much like a female Oompa Loompa. You get the idea.
We got all our booze together and headed down to the train station to catch the 12:08 train into Zurich. Once there, we grouped together at the main train station, and immediately started getting swarmed by photographers, mostly amateur. It was like the paparazzi were there. We all hung around and let ourselves be the centre of attention for a while, and then started moving towards the lake. One guy asked if I could do a few poses for him on the way, and he looked pretty professional with his camera. Maybe they’ll show up somewhere, who knows. We made our way to the river while Kyle and I slowly put away our bottle of gin and a few Anker beers. Everyone was pretty hammered pretty early, and they all let loose, no inhibitions. We were all dancing like crazy, and the photos never ceased. We danced around the Opernhaus Bühne for quite a while and at one point joined an outdoor foam party, which was actually pretty gross, so I didn’t stay in it for long. We also tried to get on the main stage, because our costumes were better than any of the real dancers, but security wouldn’t let us up.
When the parade started everybody moved over to watch and try to get on a float. Quite a few of the floats had a theme of sorts, like ‘white clothes’ or ‘leather.’ Apparently they weren’t letting people on any of them though. Then came the float with the foam. Luckily I left my camera with Travis while Shane and I followed it, and it dumped a huge amount of foam on us. I got knocked on the ground and couldn’t stand up because it was too crowded. I had to crawl around and I couldn’t breathe because of all the foam. I must have been under the foam for at least a minute, and finally got out and gasped for breath. I managed to find Shane, who had lost his flip-flops in the foam. We found them, which is really good because there was glass everywhere. Then we looked at ourselves and saw how sketchy we looked. Our makeup was all running down our faces, and we looked like death. We thought everyone else was ahead of us, so we started walking forwards with the parade. As far as I know nobody else made it on any floats. We ran into Ed and started looking for people with him. We found the float that had four topless painted girls dancing in front of it. We joined them and security pulled us away the first few times. After that they just let us go. We danced with them for a bit, and then left to continue our search for the others. Ed got separated from us somehow, so it was just Shane and I for a while.
We walked the entire length of the parade to the very front where the floats stopped and realised maybe the others had never been in front of us. Shortly into the way back we ran into Tommy and Lindsey, who were dressed like super heroes. Tommy was hammered and kept running off to dance in random groups. A few minutes later I saw my supervisor with his camera and he took a photo of all of us. We kept walking back to the Opernhaus, and Lindsey cut her foot on some glass. Shane started to get her towards a medical station, and I tried to get Tommy, but he was too drunk, so we ended up separated again. Tommy and I made our way back to the Opernhaus, where by fluke I ran into Holger and he showed us where everybody else was. First I found Kyle and Liisa, so happy to have found the group again. Turned out I had been gone for over six hours, so I have no photos in that gap.
We went back to the Opernhaus and danced some more, and it started to get dark really quickly. Kyle and I went off and got a pizza and kebab because we were starved. After that we headed back to and waited for the ‘surprise DJ’ to come on. Kyle left before it started, and a few of us remained behind.
When the DJ came on, it was Armin Van Buuren, which excited Travis, because he knows the most about DJs. There was a crazy light show and the DJ set was pretty damn good. Apparently he’s the third best DJ in the world, and it sounded pretty awesome. The set went on for about an hour, and after that we made the slow trek home. On the way Ed and I wrestled each other in a fountain, which looking back was probably pretty dirty, but we were drunk. Because of street parade they had special night trains running all night, so there was no problem getting home.
Here are some links of people that made it on the internet:
Me following the parade
Shane and Evan dancing
Ed hanging out with naked girls
Shane and I in costume
The Street Parade Group
We got all our booze together and headed down to the train station to catch the 12:08 train into Zurich. Once there, we grouped together at the main train station, and immediately started getting swarmed by photographers, mostly amateur. It was like the paparazzi were there. We all hung around and let ourselves be the centre of attention for a while, and then started moving towards the lake. One guy asked if I could do a few poses for him on the way, and he looked pretty professional with his camera. Maybe they’ll show up somewhere, who knows. We made our way to the river while Kyle and I slowly put away our bottle of gin and a few Anker beers. Everyone was pretty hammered pretty early, and they all let loose, no inhibitions. We were all dancing like crazy, and the photos never ceased. We danced around the Opernhaus Bühne for quite a while and at one point joined an outdoor foam party, which was actually pretty gross, so I didn’t stay in it for long. We also tried to get on the main stage, because our costumes were better than any of the real dancers, but security wouldn’t let us up.
The Superheroes; Vance, Jacqui, Lindsey and Tommy
Yeahhhhh
Party people; Me, Liisa, Kyle, Adrienn
Handsome young men; Shane, Me, Tommy, Evan
When the parade started everybody moved over to watch and try to get on a float. Quite a few of the floats had a theme of sorts, like ‘white clothes’ or ‘leather.’ Apparently they weren’t letting people on any of them though. Then came the float with the foam. Luckily I left my camera with Travis while Shane and I followed it, and it dumped a huge amount of foam on us. I got knocked on the ground and couldn’t stand up because it was too crowded. I had to crawl around and I couldn’t breathe because of all the foam. I must have been under the foam for at least a minute, and finally got out and gasped for breath. I managed to find Shane, who had lost his flip-flops in the foam. We found them, which is really good because there was glass everywhere. Then we looked at ourselves and saw how sketchy we looked. Our makeup was all running down our faces, and we looked like death. We thought everyone else was ahead of us, so we started walking forwards with the parade. As far as I know nobody else made it on any floats. We ran into Ed and started looking for people with him. We found the float that had four topless painted girls dancing in front of it. We joined them and security pulled us away the first few times. After that they just let us go. We danced with them for a bit, and then left to continue our search for the others. Ed got separated from us somehow, so it was just Shane and I for a while.
Shane making some friends
Vance dancing with Tommy
The last picture before getting separated
We walked the entire length of the parade to the very front where the floats stopped and realised maybe the others had never been in front of us. Shortly into the way back we ran into Tommy and Lindsey, who were dressed like super heroes. Tommy was hammered and kept running off to dance in random groups. A few minutes later I saw my supervisor with his camera and he took a photo of all of us. We kept walking back to the Opernhaus, and Lindsey cut her foot on some glass. Shane started to get her towards a medical station, and I tried to get Tommy, but he was too drunk, so we ended up separated again. Tommy and I made our way back to the Opernhaus, where by fluke I ran into Holger and he showed us where everybody else was. First I found Kyle and Liisa, so happy to have found the group again. Turned out I had been gone for over six hours, so I have no photos in that gap.
We went back to the Opernhaus and danced some more, and it started to get dark really quickly. Kyle and I went off and got a pizza and kebab because we were starved. After that we headed back to and waited for the ‘surprise DJ’ to come on. Kyle left before it started, and a few of us remained behind.
Ferris wheel
Travis looking excited for the 'surprise DJ'
After dark
When the DJ came on, it was Armin Van Buuren, which excited Travis, because he knows the most about DJs. There was a crazy light show and the DJ set was pretty damn good. Apparently he’s the third best DJ in the world, and it sounded pretty awesome. The set went on for about an hour, and after that we made the slow trek home. On the way Ed and I wrestled each other in a fountain, which looking back was probably pretty dirty, but we were drunk. Because of street parade they had special night trains running all night, so there was no problem getting home.
Ky's model face
A nice 'Ja voll' from Holger
Armin Van Buuren
The end
Here are some links of people that made it on the internet:
Me following the parade
Shane and Evan dancing
Ed hanging out with naked girls
posted by Devon at 16:37
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