The theme this year is supposed to be "In Motion" though I get the feeling the theme is pretty arbitrary and does little to alter everyone's schedule of drinking a lot and maybe listening to some live music.
This was one of a couple of bizarre looking carnival rides set up in the big square in the center of the city. If you look close you'll notice the kids are sitting on toilets and wearing small chalkboards around their necks with what I assume are their names followed by a sequential number. It was odd and moved very mechanically, not what you'd expect from a ferris wheel type ride.
While I was preoccupied examining these weird rides I failed to hear what was going on just next door. It is times like these that I am glad I'm as tall as I am, because the circle of bodies was probably ten deep. What they were surrounding was a marching band composed of half adults, half children, and a few so young it was all they could do to connect stick to drum. Of the children (whom sounded pretty good) a handful were also in costumes. The boy above was wearing what looked like Santa from the shoulders up, and a ninja turtle from the front. Others were wearing masks and other assorted pieces of costume that looked like they had been picked out of a big prop bag someone brought. As I mentioned before though, they were pretty good. In a way the weirdness of being in a marching band with the quirkiness of the costumes reminded me a bit of a show I saw the Rude Mechanicals play in Brooklyn.
Later tonight I saw a bunch of kids jumping on a flipped over car that somehow got in the middle of the square (where cars aren't allowed). I'm sure the car was there to be destroyed for some reason, and this wasn't just a random act of vandalism by kids. However, I can't imagine what reason this would be. Unfortunately, I was without my camera, but in a city where people generally seem a bit conservative and guarded, this was probably the wildest thing I've seen so far.
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