Parade of Lost Souls 2014

The Parade of Lost Souls 2014

With the continuous year after year attempts of creating mystery around The Parade Of Lost Souls, this year there was actually some mystery to be had.  Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret had taken full control of running the event from former Public Dreams Society and the mystery was, “How would the event shape up and how would it differ, for better or worse?”

I remember my first time going to the parade.  I had dressed up and made my way down to Commercial Drive and it was an event to remember.  Shop windows had been decked out and there was a certain eeriness to everything that was happening.  Most people were dressed up in support of the event that they were eager to be a part of, the day of the dead for the child in all of us.

The main stage act, The Vaudeville Vagabonds, did a great job at entertaining the crowd and ended up drawing a lot of attention.  There was an alleyway DJ spinning tunes that sounded freaking awesome and a few other highlights for me, but there were also some areas in need of improvement in order for next year’s parade to be better.

 

 

A couple of years ago The Thriller act took place in the rain in an alley near the studios on Glen Drive and was downright amazing. But something was lacking this year.  It wasn’t that it was a nice night, devoid of rain, was it?  Could it be the fact it was taking place in a field?  Could it be that the choreography was not as tight and precise?  Perhaps it was just that I had seen it all before, and the first time I saw it I found it ‘new’.

Another concern was that there was a suggested start time but it seemed behind by about an hour.  People were left adrift and soon began feeling that they were, indeed, lost souls in this parade. If you arrived much later in the evening the whole parade would have made much more sense.

As stated earlier, there was much good to be found.  They provided a map online that would have been helpful had I noticed it earlier.  There was an actual method to the madness and a starting point to take you around in a large loop.  There were quite a number of visitors.  The fact is that it was the first solo kick at the parade for the Dusty Flowerpot Society and I truly wish them the best for the years to come.  I cannot help but think that we should all be finding ways to support them because the event is definitely worth saving.

 

Ugh… okay, closing words…

Wouldn’t it be great to have this event where we shut down the streets, have it much more adult oriented (i.e. a few legal drinks) as we party, a bit like Mardi Gras but fully engulfed in the Day of the Dead?