Fremont Parade

Check out the Fremont Solstice Parade and Fair!

The most famous part of the Fremont Solstice Festival is the parade.  We saw some pretty unusual people in the neighborhood, as we walked towards the Fremont area.  These people here were obviously participating in the parade.  Their kid, in the middle here, made a point of walking at least 10 feet behind them before we took a picture.The Fremont Troll is right underneath the 99 bridge.  Note the VW bug is has clutched in his hand.  The other guy is the picture is Joe Beda, a friend of Eric's who accompanied us to the fair.


Along the parade route, people were setting up early to get good seats.


Some people were really well prepared.We decided not to stake out our claim to early, and instead walked around the fair.  Lots of food for sale


Vendors selling balloon sculptures.This guy has been a fixture at the Fremont fair for many years.


The Communist Party was out in force--note the Quotations from Chairman Mao.  I bet you can't even get this in China anymore.Dig the dog...


As we finished with the fair and were walking towards the parade area, we passed the Weird Car parking lot.  Note the Jurrasic Park theme on this car...And then we have the floating sculpture car...


And the broken ceramic tile car...This one has everything plus the kitchen sink...


Floating babies?


A portable office, with phone, answering machine, everything you could need...Finally we got our spot along the parade route.  An unofficial tradition of  the Fremont fair is for naked people on bikes to zip around the parade route right before the more official floats.  Check them out!




Another pre-parade attraction is the Bubble Man, who twirls around swinging his bubble wands in the air, creating bubbles and suds for peopleThen a guy next to us had some kind of seizure, blocking the parade for quite a while while the ambulance and fire truck got in.


Finally, here's the parade itself.  There were no motorized floats allowed, so everything was somehow human powered.  These guys put together a massive 4-man bicycle.


Note the men pushing the float at the back.


Planet of the apes?Here's the rest of the pictures, in random order.