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FLRC Newsletter - Jul 2003 |
| FLRC at the Ithaca Festival Parade | |
This year's Ithaca Festival was marred with recklessly bad weather. There was very nice weather, though threatening weather at the beginning, and glorious weather for the last few hours. Everything in between was a combination of rain, cold, and wind.
But the weather was nice, and threatening, for the parade. Ours (the Ithaca parade) has to be one of the best in the nation. Why? It's a combination of fun, imagination, festival anticipation, size (big, but not too big or any other extreme), opportunity for participation by almost anyone, and perhaps the most important ingredient - a great deal of enthusiasm displayed by both participants and spectators. I'd been a increasingly appreciative spectator for several years, but this year, I felt it was important that our FLRC was a part of this parade, just as we are and wish to become a larger part of the Ithaca Area scene. The three of us parade planners, Karen Grover, Vanessa Dumont, and myself decided to start small and build from that in future parades. Whoever showed up - we would be the centerpiece, the core of our parade - along with only a few props, that being a music box with music put together by Sarah Posegate upon suggestions made on the list-serve, our banner, small candies to fling, I mean distribute to our adoring fans, and 20 sheets of information, handed out very selectively. A few flowers, a couple of swords, kilts, the usual.
We developed one major schick, in the Japanese style of observe and improve upon. Oh yes, John Whitman was there as well; and it was he who took it upon himself to schlep that big boombox along the route. Good going! What happened (loved the spontaneity) was this - observing the group ahead, the 4-H Tailwaggers Society (a group of dogs and people) putting their banner close to the ground so that the beasts could jump over it, occasionally with a little enticing on the part of people, we did much the same, to the wild cheer of our adoring all volunteer audience. We fed off the good energy and ventured into such theater as fake running and dancing and pretend racing to a real red finish tape. It was not much short of wild.
Anyway, we had a very good time. I am confident that we will all be returning, those of us who were there, and I also believe that more of us FLRC'ers will turn up as well. Having just 30-40, oops, I mean 10-15 in the parade wasn't the embarrassment I had feared, but it wasn't exactly overwhelming either. I am hoping that, sometime in the not too distant future, we can populate the city like the stars in the heavens. Then the fair people of Cortland will have to come down and be our spectators.
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