Above: a short video clip of a band at the beginning of the day. I've been meaning to blog about this for a while. Each summer in Vancouver there is a Car Free day, with festivals in 4 different parts of the city, Commercial Drive (our neighborhood), Kitsilano, Main Street, & West End. They shut down the major streets & the street is then filled with performers, vendors, bands, some protestors of various things, good food. They also have free guarded bike parking...I have never seen so many bikes in one place. It was pretty awesome. This year was our first time to be a part of the Commercial Drive car free day. We helped put out food in the green room where volunteers at the festival could come to rest & replenish. At the beginning of the day we looked out our window at people setting up their tables & things seemed pretty calm, then around 11:30 random bands began forming & walking down the street together, one group was dressed totally as pirates. Then we went to the green room, we came out 2 hours later & could not believe how packed the street was. There was a roller disco on one side street where they were playing rap music that was from my high school days. There was a group called the "white ladies" dressed all in white with parasals & their faces were painted like mimes & they just walked very slowly down the street barefoot. Also, I found out that hula-hoops have made a comeback. People were dancing with hula-hoops & it was actually very impressive. I could never keep a hula-hoop up for over 2 spins, much less dance with it. Another interesting part that was unique to the Commercial Drive festival was a healing garden with tents set up providing everything from massage, sound therapy, reiki, and one church in the area provided prayers & blessings from scripture. People were lined up for prayers & blessings! Here are a few pic's
Below: At the roller disco, check out the speed skater with the manual lawn mower.
pic #2 - Commercial Drive at the end of the day! pic #3 - Notice the hula-hoops!
