The Zurich Street Parade...about half a million people come to the city each year for a big techno/house/group costume dance party. Around 11am that morning, we were busy trying to finish last minute shopping downtown before things closed, other things opened, things got loud and it got crowded. We happened to be passing through the main train station on our way to the tram home and got to see a lot of the pre-festivities. There was a stage with music already blasting, police already in place, butt cheeks already showing, and as M commented people all "shaven" for this event. Some costumes, like Snow White and some dwarves, or the bordello angel/devil and their grandmas, had more of a sense of humor. Others, which did indeed require a total-body-waxing, had less. The 70 year old guy with the jungle chief outfit (which did not include boxer shorts), was humorous. And the countless women in all manor of "naughty" costumes just reminded me of halloween in the US. It was a pretty festive mood, everyone laughing, a lot of six-packs and booze bottles, and only a few people drunk. It was fun to jump up and down a bit with the train station crowd. I remember thinking how nice it must be for people to feel like they could just wear what they wanted and let loose a bit. I think I like the Street Parade.
We went home, and found a local channel on TV with live coverage of the actual parade (more like a bunch of semi-trucks with a dance party on top, slowly inching through the streets). By this time the crowd was a lot more rain-wet, drunk, and in making-out-when-the-cameras-are-on-me mode. Meh, I no longer like the Street Parade as much. It took me most of the evening, thinking about it in the back of my head, talking with M about it, to figure out what had changed for me. I mean, it is meant to be about Peace and Love. Ok, let's just say they mistranslated and mean Lust. Fine. So why was it such a disappointment? People had the same crazy outfits on as I'd seen earlier. They were still dancing.
I think I finally figured out that I was disappointed because I had believed it was about dropping inhibitions, and in the end I found it to be very scripted in a way. The women caught on TV cameras were all bumping, grinding, pole-dancing, full-on making out, etc. Many people were way more drunk. There was a more aggressive edge to people shouting. And in the end, I realized that what I had hoped it was, about being who-ever you wanted to be without worrying what your fellow straight-laced Swiss citizens thought, wasn't really what it was about. It wasn't about not caring what people thought about your looks, not with all the skimpy cloth or "just glitter" outfits.
It made me think about what I would have actually considered uninhibited, and some demonstration of "not caring about what society thinks." And I came up with one big thing that could have been different, and made it more like what I had thought it was. People could have had all the same outfits (or lack of) on, but they could have done one thing differently which would have made it a truly uninhibited event in my eyes.
They could have, none of them, shaved for the event. Now that would have been different.
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