MARSHALL MERMAID AND PIRATES PARADE
Actually this parade took place on Saturday, June 1. I knew in advance that I would take a lot of photographs so rested up this week and skipped writing for five days with the assumption that I would fill in those days with photographs from the Marshall Mermaid and Pirates Parade. And sure enough it turned out that I had such a good time photographing people in their wild costumes and took so many photographs that I have plenty of photographs for Tuesday and each day for the rest of the week through Saturday.
The idea of a Marshall Mermaids and Pirates Parade was dreamed up in 2009. At that time it was a very short parade with few participants. But the idea caught on. It turned out that the people of Marshall and all around liked the idea of dressing in outrageous costumes and strutting their stuff. Children loved getting their faces painted and dressing up as mermaids and pirates, but adults did too. This year the town was full of people of all ages, very young to very old looking silly and loving it, who were both spectators and participants in the floats that went down the Main Street.
The day has grown into an all day celebration on Blannahassett Island across the French Broad River from Marshall. What was formerly the high school is now artists studios and around the building are wide lawns and parking areas. Beginning at 11 on Saturday, June 1, the wide laws were filled with artist’s booths, even an axe throwing booth, a number of food trucks with family sitting on the grass and children running around. The high point for the face painted little pirates and mermaids were a number of colorful inflated water slides and inflated castles where children could bounce on trampolines. I’ve included a couple of videos of the screeching mayhem.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b8QSwkimTtXvmIJtmW2mQGpg
https://share.icloud.com/photos/091-PFtCJpdtq_2heTH4HnDIQ
There was a Seafood Cookoff where for $15 you could eat dishes prepared by ten different cooks who were competing with each other for best tasting seafood.
And then finally at 6 was the Mermaids and Pirates parade through the center of town with squirting water cannons and great enthusiasm.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/05c9gZ2nb6-MHeXG-MadDq9aQ
Really it was a chance for the entire community to let go and imagine who they could be.. Dressing up in wild costumes must bring out the child in all of us and people of all ages seem to be looking for an excuse to do it, letting them for one day to go crazy. I’ve experienced the Holi festival in Varanasi, India a number of times. Everyone sprays everyone in public with colored water. Mermaids and Pirates day in Marshall welcomes summer with a festival, with many of the participants wearing scanty costumes without shame, just letting loose.
The organizers organized well but really what they were doing was providing a stage for the creativity of the people of Marshall. It was the crowds who came in their imaginative costumes that made the day a success. So over the next five days I’ll show you what some of people dreamed up.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 