PTown Daily Diary: The Flesh Tsunami Known As Carnival

Parade day has arrived. The floats, the drag, the buff guys in their speedos and the local merchants who make a year’s living in three months are all ready to roll.

As noon approaches, Commercial Street begins to fill with celebrants, onlookers and people rushing to get out of the way of the human tidal wave approaching. With weather in the mid-80s, ice cream, yogurt and bars are already doing a booming business for the day – and unlike many places that attract crowds in all states of sobriety, everyone seems to accept that on this day at least, anything goes. There’s no violence, no shoving; just people milling about delighted to be in each other’s company.

As mentioned in previous installments, this year’s theme is “Back to the ’80s,” so naturally you’d expect to see someone dressed as Prince in his “Purple Rain” heyday, a handful of Michael Jacksons and the occaisional Cher circa “If I Could Turn Back Time” leather and spandex outfit. But there were MTV astronauts, Fred Flintsone and the rest of his TV family, many a Mario Brother, Smurfs abundant and enough Pac Men to gobble the town whole.

Every once in a while, you’d spot something totally original – like the pair above, one painted in Keith Haring style and the other sporting his David Bowie/Aladdin Sane lightning bolt makeup. The parade’s conclusion means it’s time to dance, and dance we did – to Madonna classics, Whitney Houston mixes and even the long lost “Together in Electric Dreams.” While more than half those in attendance were not alive when it hit the charts, the other half sang at the tops of their lungs: “We’ll always be together, however far it seems… We’ll always be together/together in electric dreams.”