June 2003 / Legalize Parade / 2 of 3

One had a giant sign on it that said ‘we take drugs seriously’ and ' just say know' underneath. They were handing out information about how to minimise the potential health risks associated with recreational drug consumption. I’ve always had affection for anybody or anything poking fun at the facile Reaganesque idea of ‘just say no’. A girl passed me with a patch on her bag that said ' Fuck War'. My saturday was taking a decided turn for the better.

I found myself dancing along with the other folks along
to the infectious beats. I looked up at one point and saw that somebody had painted ‘pied piper’ on the side of the truck I was following. For once in my life I was perfectly content to be a sheep. I am not sure where this tradition originated, of rave street parades. In terms of scale, it must have been in Berlin at the Love Parades. The trucks move along at a slow pace, occasionally stopping long enough for a crowd to gather around,
but the whole event has a fluid feel to it, in the sense
that the scenery and people are constantly changing.

What struck me about this particular parade was that
on the surface it was political. The over-arching theme was of soft-drug legalisation. One man was wearing a sign that said ‘Prohibition = Social Control’. He was walking with a group of people who were holding
>> read more

<< go back