We went, we saw, we photographed. We managed to see quite a bit of the Zurich Street Parade without getting stuck in any giant throngs of people, so I was happy with the whole experience. It was basically, as expected, a smaller version of Berlin’s Love Parade, with around 800,000 ‘ravers’ expected this year (fewer than in years past due to the forecasted rain).
There were stages set up all over downtown Zurich from which DJs were playing music so loud that my heartbeat got confused with the bass on more than one occasion. Ravers were out in their clubbing best, often in groups all dressed in variations on a theme (or even the exact same thing). Overpriced cheap beer and sausages were being sold everywhere we looked.
The parade itself started around 2:30, but moved very, very slowly through the crowd. Each float had a DJ, several dancers, and a vague theme. Oh, and a token fat person. Don’t believe me? See evidence here, here, and here. Only the Zurich ballet float was exempt from this requirement.
One of the floats had foam spewing out of the back. People seemed to enjoy playing in said foam.
By the time we were ready to head home (sometime around 6:00), half of the 30 or so floats had yet to leave their starting positions. We were getting a little bored of raving (and my friend Bill was without earplugs and thus about to go deaf), so we walked down the line of standing floats just to make sure we weren’t missing anything good. We weren’t.
Since Blogger is not cooperating with me at the moment, you’ll have to check out Flickr for the rest of the picutres.
Define fat.
ps … I share your love for the novel “Middlesex” … great piece of work.
Yes, and “La Dolce Vita.”
I swear several of those people were in Geneva for the Lake Parade in July. That dude wearing sequins, feathers and heels in particular.
I noticed the fat float people too! Not to be a beetch, but the one with the pink, fishnet top was hard to miss.
haha – this is so funny. I haven’t seen foam since I stopped going out “clubbing”.