The Fremont Solstice Parade is a fun and wacky tradition here in Seattle. Every year at the official beginning of summer, thousands of people gather to watch floats, marching bands, acrobats, super-huggers, people in costume, people out of costume, and every other strange and entertaining sort of person march down the streets of Fremont, self-proclaimed Center of the Universe.
Of course, all those flashy people attract photographers like kids to a pinata, although we try to be more gentle than the metaphor would suggest. Several hors before the parade started, I and dozens of other shutterbugs descended on the staging area for the parade, distracting dozens of participants from their last-minute preparations. Fortunately, the parade has a very relaxed and fun-loving atmosphere, so the participants were more than happy to be distracted. Organization isn’t really a focus at this event. As long as everyone ends up on the same street, it’s a success.
The parade is preceded, traditionally, dependably, and completely unofficially, by a host of bicyclists wearing ultra-light single-use costumes made of paint. Thousands of boring photos of these cyclists clot the Internet like they clotted the street at the start of the parade. Taking an interesting photo of someone riding a bike in a traffic jam is hard, even if that person has gold skin and sparkles in the light. I tried to move to the parade’s endpoint to catch the cyclists as they finished the course, but had limited success for two reasons. First, a person on a bicycle is faster than a man on foot, and second, the temperature did not break 60 degrees the whole day, encouraging the cyclists to don their street clothes as soon as possible.
Gasworks Park hosts a huge party after the parade, with all the participants and many of the spectators spending the afternoon eating, drinking, listening to music, and having a good time. Usually there is no gap between the cyclists and the parade proper, but the cold temperatures hastened the cyclists and they arrived, dressed, and left before the parade was in sight of the park. Seeing Gasworks empty, spectators thought the whole show was over, and some left before seeing the parade itself.
I went back out the parade route and photographed the floats an performers as they passed. This is quite different from my usual style of photographing people, and I enjoyed the challenge. I hope to attend more parades in the future, but I doubt other parades will be as cool as this one.
Gasworks Parks filled up after the parade finally arrived and I wandered around, photographing interesting events and striking up conversations at random. I prefer spending a bit of time with someone and taking some photos over the course of a conversation to taking a few photos and moving on. I’m already full of ideas for the next parade, but it’s a year away.
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Tags: costumes, Fremont, fremont solstice parade, parade, seattle