by Kirby Lindsay, posted 19 June 2013
The 25th Fremont Arts Council (FAC) Solstice Parade, this year with the addition of Honk! Fest West, will stroll the streets of Fremont, from 2nd Ave NW to Gas Works Park, on Saturday, June 22nd starting at 3p – a new, special time. Meanwhile, a block or two away, the Fremont Street Fair will pack in people anxious to explore the vendor booths, music stages, beer gardens, and art opportunities – plus a parking lot filled with the Seattle Art Car Blowout (SACBO)!
Anywhere from 50,000 to 1 million people will arrive in Fremont to participate in these festivities, and this influx will impact Fremonsters (the people who, year ‘round ,work, live and/or play here,) willing or not. To find out about the diverse ways Fremonsters participate, or don’t, in the festivities, throughout early June 2013 fifteen deliberately random subjects (none of them had ever before been interviewed for Fremocentrist.com,) were asked, “What will you be doing at 3p on Saturday, June 22nd?”
at the FAC Powerhouse parade building workshop
Wayne Richards
“Hopefully, I’ll be enjoying watching it,” explained Richards, co-Studio Coordinator of the Parade building workshop, “Whatever they need.” With two weeks to go, Richards didn’t have a plan to participate in any particular Parade ensemble. “I was in it last year,” he said, with Zero Waste Seattle, “I was involved in the construction and carrying thereof,” of the 100’ dragon built of empty plastic water bottles. “This year, I really just want to watch,” he said, but “if on Saturday, [the FAC] need something done, I’ll happily do it.”
at the dedication of J.P. Patches Place
Sherianne Caldwell
“I will be walking through the crowd, trying not to step on kids and dogs,” explained Caldwell, a long-time Seattleite (and huge fan of Bob Newman,) “trying to figure out what I’m going to buy to eat. The smells always get to me!” Caldwell may see the Parade, and she enjoyed the idea of a later start time, “better for the cyclists,” she observed, but her main focus will actually be the Fair. “I love dining back and forth on Fremont, and seeing the booths.”
at the FAC Powerhouse parade building workshop
Sam Ali
“I’ll be participating in the Parade,” answered Ali, “having a good time, celebrating the Solstice.” Ali plays kickball in the B.F. Day Upper Playfield with the West Coast Kickball League, and he’s lending his skill with power tools to build a mobile kickball field, and volcano, for the league’s parade ensemble. “I think it’s a fun community celebration,” he said, “the reason for being in the Parade is to have fun, and be a part of the community.” (Photo with Hiram Brown, West Coast Kickball League Commissioner)
at the FAC Powerhouse parade building workshop
Randy Kilmer
Kilmer has seen nearly every Solstice Parade, although, “I might have missed the first one,” he admitted. This year, he’s the lead of the ‘Basket Full of Bubbles’ ensemble, “we have elementary school kids blowing bubbles.” Two years ago, Kilmer, and other parents, collaborated with Bubbleman Garry Golightly, on a bubbl-extravaganza ensemble. Last year, with the Bubbleman booked elsewhere, they went on without him, “and 100’ out of the starting gate our float broke down,” Kilmer reported, “halfway through the bubbles were failing on us. We learned a lot last year.” Kilmer, and the other parents, have studiously applied those lessons already.
at the dedication of J.P. Patches Place
Pat Cashman (with direction by Steve Wilson)
Cashman has seen the Solstice Parade, up-close, as a Solstice Parade Commentator three years ago. Now busy working on his new Seattle television comedy program, The 206, currently filming at Fremont Studios, he deferred to the program’s Director about his plans for June 22nd. “We’ll be hammered,” Wilson admitted, “Why would this Saturday afternoon be any different from any other afternoon in June?”
at the Fremont Fun Run 5K & Briefcase Relay
Michelle Primley Benton
“Probably I’ll be admiring the many costumed bicyclists, and the many un-costumed,” admitted Primley Benton, a member of the Briefcase Relay team ‘Velvet Elvi,’ “We’ll stick around for the parade too.” When Primley Benton moved to Seattle in 2006, her first home was on Motor Place, in Fremont. “I miss being close to where they build the floats,” she acknowledged, but she doesn’t miss the parking headaches caused by the Fair. “I haven’t been in it,” she said about the parade, but “I’d be game if we came up with a good idea.”
at the FAC Powerhouse parade building workshop
Michael Kacena
“I’m going to be piloting a giant sea turtle with a giant island on its back,” Kacena explained, “I have this giant phallus to bless the onlookers with the sacred seed of the Green Man.” The ensemble will celebrate the May Queen and the Green Man, and the rites of spring, although Kacena explained, “I am a completely default Green Man.” He’s filling in for the original Green Man, who won’t be in town for the Parade. “I’ve been in the parade 7 or 8 times,” he said, “I’m usually a clown,” and enjoying a party where the police actually protect the participants!
at the Fremont Chamber of Commerce/Key 4 Women LinkedIn Seminar
Marjorie Goldfarb
“I don’t always make it to the Solstice Parade,” admitted the local businesswoman, “but I always make it to the Fair.” Goldfarb operates Bits & Pages, and serves on the Board of the Wallingford Chamber of Commerce, but she previously worked with the Fremont Public Association (FPA) when it organized the Fair. Goldfarb has attended the Fair every year since she moved to Seattle, in 1981. “I like seeing which crafts booths are showing up,” explained this Fan of Street Fairs, “there’s always something different at all the street fairs I attend.”
at the FAC Powerhouse parade building workshop
Jess Haynie-Lavelle
“My troupe is Behemoth Rhapsody,” explained Haynie-Lavelle as she took a short break from attaching balls of recycled paper to a wire frame, “essentially it is going to be a more-or-less, almost life-sized beached whale battling with a giant squid surrounded by mermaids, migrating with the whale, protecting it from the squid, with drowned sailors that drag the whale along.” Haynie-Lavelle will head up the ensemble, but for her third effort, “I’ve learned the importance of working with a team,” she said. Last year, her ensemble did a giant bird with participants dressed as Phoenix, wearing Mexican wrestling masks.
at the Fremont Fun Run 5K & Briefcase Relay
Greg Lyons
“I don’t know,” admitted the Tableau Software employee, and member of the Tableau Briefcase Relay team, “I’ll probably be at home watching my daughter, or she’ll be on my shoulders watching the parade.” Lyons has seen the parade, “a half dozen times,” and he has no problem with his 2-year-old daughter seeing the parade, or the pre-parade bike riders. “Perhaps I won’t take her in a few years,” he answered, “it’ll depend on the reactions she shows to other things.”
at GiGi Retro Inspired Clothing boutique
Francine Norton
“The most honest answer I could give…,” Norton started, then explained, “Last year, we stood in the windows and watched the parade go by.” This year the 1-year-old boutique may be open, or it may be closed, when the parade starts. The owner hadn’t decided, but Norton knew she will be in the store, helping, no matter what. A transplant, from New Mexico and California, Norton saw her first Solstice Parade last year. Her favorite part was, “the naked people painted up,” she explained, “It was such a Santa Fe moment for me.”
at the Fremont Fun Run 5K & Briefcase Relay
Christine Shiao
“I want to be in the naked bike race,” admitted the Fremont Anytime Fitness employee, “I’ve always wanted to.” Shiao has seen the Parade the last two years, and she plans to be a member of the pre-parade Solstice Cyclists. “I’ve kind of been sheltered,” she explained, “and when I saw them as I saw the parade… I wondered why everyone was painted.” It took her a moment to realize the riders were nude. “I think it might be a good social event,” she said, smiling cheekily.
at Fremont Coffee Company
Christiaan Morris
“I will be serving a line out the door at Fremont Coffee,” explained manager/roaster Morris, “dressed as Guns N Roses. Everybody’s dressing up as rock stars. Last year we were The Avengers. I was a skinny Thor.” Morris has never seen the Parade as an audience member. “I’ve never really not been working,” he observed, thinking back. For the last five years, he’s been behind the espresso machine at Fremont Coffee where he can catch a glimpse or two of the parade. “I see a little bit,” he admitted, including “a million naked bicyclers.” He also remembers when it used to be, “just a few.”
at the Fremont Chamber/Key 4 Women LinkedIn Seminar
Catherine Numata
“I don’t know,” the receptionist/HR assistant for Impinj admitted ruefully. Although she’s been working in Fremont since 2010, she’s never attended. Since she’s moving to Arizona later this summer, she’s also unlikely to ever see it. “Being a parent, I’m always involved in family activities on the weekend,” she said. As for bringing the kids, Numata explained, “they don’t like to do things with me. They’re teenagers.”
at the FAC Powerhouse parade building workshop
Beth Hayes
“I’ll be in it,” she said, then hesitated. “I might not be, but I’m planning to be there.” I’d interrupted her as Hayes worked on a giant puppet frame. “I’m going to be a giraffe,” she said of her ‘master plan,’ “I was trying to do a two-person pink elephant,” she said, “then a friend sent a photo of a giraffe, with dots of multi-colors. I thought it would go well with the elephant.” Last year Hayes, and others, walked the parade as an Ent, a tree puppet.
While not all Fremonsters embrace the crowds, confusion and celebration of the Solstice Parade (or the Fair, or SACBO, or Honk! Fest West,) that may come as a relief to those who will be here, struggling for breath in the still impressive crowds, at 3p on Saturday, June 22nd.
And what will you be doing during the Solstice Parade? Whatever it is – have a fabulously freaky, Fremont-esque time!
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©2013 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.