North Vancouver Canada Day Parade 2009
It's been a long time since I've watched a parade. A bunch of friends, under the banner of Vancouver Science Fiction Fans, donned costumes and entered this year's North Vancouver Canada Day parade. There's a lot of common membership among the different groups, so coming together for something like this is a natural. I believe it's the 3rd year the groups have done it. Since I wasn't motivated enough to make a costume of my own I thought it was past time to show up and cheer them on.
The Stargate fans made an actual Stargate! Very cool. Among the characters escorting the Stargate were Princess Leah, some Battlestar Galactica crew, Men in Black featuring Grga as Zed, and Rorschach (from Watchmen). North Vancouver's very own Spacepug, marching in the oh-so-glamorous orange BSG crew coveralls, inhaled some nasty paint fumes making a nice parade banner. Well done, everyone!
I couldn't believe how big the parade was, clocking in around 2 1/2 hours. I might be biased, but based on creativity and effort the Sci-Fi fans had one of the better entries. There were some local businesses that simply stuck a sign on a vehicle and drove. Boring. Other businesses were more innovative, like the North Shore News who sponsored cheerleaders, er, a spirit squad, and a few who used vintage or novelty cars.
My favourite entry — because of the great band memories it brought back — was the Freddy Fuddpucker marching band. They were having a ball, and the dude leading them could spin and toss his floor-mop baton like no one's business. I wanted to grab my trombone and join them! I also liked the floats with high energy music. Kudos to Mayors Richard Walton and Darrell Mussatto for riding bicycles in the parade while the Federal politicos used cars (though I'm told MP Andrew Saxton was actually walking behind his car). The other great costume of the day was the dude dressed up as Gene Simmon's Demon from KISS.
Here's the pictures I shot of the parade. Clicking on a thumbnail will bring up a full size picture.
Continue reading North Vancouver Canada Day Parade 2009
Happy Canada Day! This post has nothing to do with Canada's birthday unless you count the lumber jack in the picture as a reference to those pioneering foresters who helped build our country.
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