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.
Streets and San setting up the parade barraiades
Very efficient setup of crowd control barricades
How many City wokers does it take to watch people work? Almost all the vehicles in this shot are City vehicles
Pride Brunch Crepe Station
Homeade coffee cake, muffins and cooikes for brunch
What is brunch without 3 pounds of bacon for 8 people
The crowds lining up 90 minutes before the Parade starts
Governor Quinn marching in the Parade
Crowds at the start of the Parade
The Obama supporters – sans Barrack
Friends marching for Obama
Jews for queers? Why not?
My favorite float – American Airlines
Immediately following the American Airlines float, you see United. Pretty lame.
The Baton – a great Drag Club in Chicago
The Gay ROTC, protecting Chicago from Soviets with fake guns
My brunch guests enjoying the Parade
This was Lilly’s favorite float
Shock Top
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…
Streets and San clearing the street
Chain gang cleaning
The Sheriff and Team monitoring the cleaning efforts
Fleet of street sweepers doing a phenomenal job
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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