PARADES: My celebration of celebration.*

Here’s a to-the-best-of-my-knowledge list of every parade I’ve ever attended (or been in).

1980+

• Macy’s Day Parade (Televised) (0 → 2000, 2012)
• New Fairfield Memorial Day Parade (0 → 2002)
• New Fairfield Fourth of July Parade (0 → 2002)

1990+

• Danbury Halloween Parade (CT, 1990)
• Wellfleet 4th of July Parade (MA, 1991)
• Sesame Place Parade (PA, 1993)
• Disney Main Street Electrical Parade (FL, 1994)
• Consolidated School Circus (CT, 1995)
• Disney Main Street Electrical Parade (FL, 1996)
• Consolidated School Dog Parade (CT, 1998)

2000+

• National Independence Day Parade (DC, 2007)
• Piazza del Popolo “Parade” (Italy, 2008)
• Quarnevalståget (Sweden, 2008)
• Surreal, UnGoogle-able ‘Clowns Without Borders’/Brazilian Carnival Parade (Sweden, 2008)
• Saint Anthony’s Feast (MA, 2008)
• Boston Pride (MA, 2008)
• St. Patrick’s Day Parade (MA, 2009)
• Lawn of the Dead Pre-Flash Mob Parade (CT, 2009)
• Alumni Walk in Traditional Parade of Classes (CT, 2009)
• Providence Gay Pride (RI, 2009)
• Bristol Fourth of July Celebration (RI, 2009)
• Minneapolis Aquatennial (MN, 2009)
• The Puerto Rican Cultural Festival Parade (RI, 2009)

2010+

• Capital Pride (DC, 2010)
• DC’s Annual High Heel Race (DC, 2010)
• Mardi Gras (LA, 2011) … including (but not limited to):
  • Krewe of ZULU
  • Krewe of Bacchus
  • Box of Wine
  • Krewe of Thoth
  • Krewe of Barkus
  • Krewe of Chewbacchus
  • Krewe of Muses
  • Krewe of Morpheus
  • St. Anthony Ramblers
• Capital Pride (DC, 2011)
• DC Caribbean Carnival Parade (DC, 2011)
• DC’s Annual High Heel Race (DC, 2011)
• The Re-Cycle (DC, 2011)
• Holidazzle Parade (MN, 2011)
• Decentralized Dance Party (DC, 2012)
• Howard Homecoming Parade (DC, 2012)
• Children Wearing Halloween Costumes in Woodley Park (DC, 2012)
• Mardi Gras (AL ← not a typo, 2013) …
  • Maids of Mirth
  • Order of Butterfly Maidens
  • Krewe of Marry Mates
  • Mobile Mystical Ladies
  • Order of Venus
• KSt 5K (Technically a combo parade, 5K, + protest march) (DC, 2013)
• Sjuttonde Maj (Oslo, Norway, 2013)
• Capital Pride (DC, 2013)
• The Big Parade in La Bohème (NY, 2014)
• Rogue Offshoot of Philadelphia’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade (PA, 2014)
• Funk Parade (DC, 2014)
  • led: Flash Mop! 
• Like 300 Motorcycles Cruising as a Fleet Winged by Cops (NY, 2014)
• Something Involving a Giant Jack-in-the-Box in Columbia Heights (DC, 2014)
• A Remarkable Number of Horses (DC, 2014)
• Funk Parade (DC, 2015)
  • led: ROBOTDISCO
• Roaring Thunder (DC, 2015)
• Probably 17 People on Rollerskates with a Portable Sound System (DC, 2015)
• Capital Pride (DC, 2015)
  • led: Queerassic Park
• Reverse Trick-o-Treating (DC, 2015)
• DC Bike Party (DC, 2015)
• Election Parade (Ponce, PR, 2016)
• Rock and Roll Marathon DC (DC, 2016)
• Dear Baltimore Bikers (MD, 2016)
• Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race (MD, 2016)
• Capital Pride (DC, 2016)
• Bumper Jackson's "I Never Met a Stranger" costume ride (DC, 2016)
• Werk for Peace (DC, 2017)
• A wonderful 130+ person community bike ride in Charlotte (NC, 2016)
• Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race (MD, 2017)
• #NoJusticeNoPride (DC, 2017)

Wish List

• Krampuslauf (Anywhere)
• Mummers Parade (PA)
• B̶a̶l̶t̶i̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶K̶i̶n̶e̶t̶i̶c̶ ̶S̶c̶u̶l̶p̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶R̶a̶c̶e̶ <-- FINALLY GOT TO GO!!!
• La Tomatina (Spain)
• Henley-on-Todd Regatta (Australia)

*Why?

Street festivals and parades and other sorts of crowds-in-public-space are demonstrations of the way we emerge together into something greater. These swarms are both check on our singular experiences and a celebration of them.

People want to build anthills together, to raise barns, and to build community. We love the balance of spectacle and substance, and we are living suspended between the desire to be individuals and to be together.

I’m fascinated by these tensions — by the role of emergence and play in the lives of humans and other critters — and I'm fixated on the opportunities these "civic spectacles" present for co-creation of tech for public good, specifically, and civic participation, generally. [More about this idea here.]

This parade list is a soft exploration of my own engagement, one of a few ways I study micro levels of public participation with a macro lens.