This past Sunday, Chicago hosted its annual Pride Parade. There was a new route this year, which had the parade pass right by my home. The parade had over 850,000 spectators (a record) and nearly 200 floats (scaled back from about 250 from last year). I took some photos of the setup, the parade and the teardown. Quite an interesting show all around.
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Streets and San setting up the parade barraiades |
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Very efficient setup of crowd control barricades |
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How many City wokers does it take to watch people work? Almost all the vehicles in this shot are City vehicles |
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Pride Brunch Crepe Station |
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Homeade coffee cake, muffins and cooikes for brunch |
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What is brunch without 3 pounds of bacon for 8 people |
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The crowds lining up 90 minutes before the Parade starts |
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Governor Quinn marching in the Parade |
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Crowds at the start of the Parade |
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The Obama supporters – sans Barrack |
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Friends marching for Obama |
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Jews for queers? Why not? |
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My favorite float – American Airlines |
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Immediately following the American Airlines float, you see United. Pretty lame. |
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The Baton – a great Drag Club in Chicago |
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The Gay ROTC, protecting Chicago from Soviets with fake guns |
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My brunch guests enjoying the Parade |
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This was Lilly’s favorite float |
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Shock Top |
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Final float can’t make it down the road as it is too tall. You’d think someone would have measured before they got this far… |
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Streets and San clearing the street |
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Chain gang cleaning |
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The Sheriff and Team monitoring the cleaning efforts |
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Fleet of street sweepers doing a phenomenal job |
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An urban ballet |
One of the most interesting parts of the Parade is how quickly the City cleans up fully after a major event. I have some fun videos too — if you are interested.
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