Quiet is the New Loud
About
Sunday, June 25, 2006
PRIDE '06
Pride Parade took over downtown Toronto as hundreds of thousands people turned up to celebrate the end of the Pride Week, which is one of North America's largest celebrations of gay culture. This year's theme is 'Fearless'.. And we weren't going to miss it.
We reached downtown Yonge-Bloor at 1.30pm, since the Parade was to start at 2pm. Already, the streets were all blocked off and there were swarms of people buzzing around or staying at ideal spots to watch the Parade. We scurried along with the slow flow, and stopped at the side Yonge Street close to the Yonge-Bloor intersection. It was a good spot since the Parade will start at Bloor Street, head west and turn south to Yonge Street, then turn east to Gerrard Street and finally stop at Church Street, which is the main street of Toronto's gay village.
The Parade started and when it made the turn to Yonge, there were loud cheers, cameras snapping, and hands waving..
The crowd at Yonge-Bloor. Imagine the whole CROWD for the Parade.
The rainbow flag.
A somber start: It's the March for Those Who Can't..
PRIDE TORONTO. Flags and signboards.
The magic rainbow schoolbus.
People on these floats are participants from organizations, etc. They throw stuffs at the people, like condoms, beads necklaces, sweets, cards.. They also use water guns to wet us.
The purple man. I think he is from the UofT Engineering group..
Masquerade!
Superman and Captain America!
Toronto's Mayor, David Miller.
A fireman on top of a fire-truck. He had an extinguisher and was pointing to us just as in the picture. Naturally we thought he was going to spray, but turns out it should be an empty one.
A 'Just Married' Mounties (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the national police). What an ingenious sign!
There were alot of floats with loud music and dancing. I love those that throw beads and have music. There were floats that played a remix of Kelly Clarkson's 'Because of You' and Shakira's 'Hips Don't Lie'.
Prevent AIDS, a message from the ACT.
Then, look what I got. There's a condom and a lubricant in it.
Guy on stilts from TD Canada Bank.
The TD Canada Bank float. Ahem, I bank at TD. Anyway, more music and dancing, with green beads giveaway!
Six-coloured flags.
Trojan condom's float.
So guess what they dragged in? Trojans!
Quirky headband.
VIA Rail Canada's float. How creative!
Canada is one of the few nations that legalized same-sex marriage.
In drag.
Rainbow fence.
The Green Party's float. There were many other political parties that came. Like NDP and Liberal. Conservatives are, erm..
Banana, anyone?
No discrimination from Anglicans.
This says it all.
My favourite float! Those metal poles lead on to..
A big rainbow flag..
A very long, big rainbow flag.
An Asian carwash. This was hilarious.
Fearless!
More flamboyant costumes.
Bagpipes!
Madam Butterfly.
Air Canada's float. I wonder how heavy they are..
Fucking fearless!
Extra lolly?
Sure thing.
Motorola's float. Rainbow bikes, matching humans sold separately.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple balloons.
Sports theme: Water polo.
Sports theme: Football.
Sports theme: Soccer. This was nice; there's the World Cup and the big ball was thrown around with the crowd. Sadly, not at my area.
Sun-God-like.
CIBC's float. CIBC is TD's competition.
PRIDE TORONTO. I think this was the last float..
Some group pictures while the Parade was passing through. I wonder where I was looking at then..
Shot 1; with one unprepared.
Shot 2; Nora, Juyenty, Me and Kusuma.
Me and my brother at the end of the Parade after he met up with us. He walked in the Parade with some university association to reduce tuition fees. TUITION FEES SUCK! Anyway, I only got a back shot of him with his angel halo. We kept calling out when we saw him, but he was at the other side and the group walked past quickly.
Juyenty, Nora, my brother and Kusuma standing somewhere along Bloor Street after the Parade.
People leaving, and the garbage truck here to clean up.
We ate at Red Lobster!
My seafood treat. Three choices with a side dish, and a cup of soup earlier on. I had a few bites (a scallop, a prawn, some strands of crab alfredo and fries) before taking this picture, so it looks kind of bare.. ;p
I had to post this despite me looking so haggard and tired, which I was. Had stood for 2-hours, tip-toeing and arching backwards, then walked a distance to Red Lobster. Anyway, the plushie I'm holding was a giveaway from Stag Shop, which sells sex toys, etc. Kusuma got this bear/dog with its assets hanging out.
Me after the meal with my beads. I look so much better.
That was it. There are still alot of pictures that me and Nora took. Some had nudity; there was also a group of males that walked bare naked in the Parade, and females topless. We ran out of memory to take more pictures, and I was even afraid that my battery would die. Had to scan through and delete pictures to make space. Many other floats, some which I didn't bother taking pictures for. The funny thing was, I always stop clicking the camera button whenever there's a float that throws freebies in my direction. LOL!
Went home all full and exhausted. Still, had so much fun. Never went for such a major celebration/parade before at downtown despite being here for a year and a half. This made me feel more like a Torontonian, with others around me celebrating an event of the city and its people. So this is my first time at Toronto's Pride Parade. We have all agreed to go next year.
We reached downtown Yonge-Bloor at 1.30pm, since the Parade was to start at 2pm. Already, the streets were all blocked off and there were swarms of people buzzing around or staying at ideal spots to watch the Parade. We scurried along with the slow flow, and stopped at the side Yonge Street close to the Yonge-Bloor intersection. It was a good spot since the Parade will start at Bloor Street, head west and turn south to Yonge Street, then turn east to Gerrard Street and finally stop at Church Street, which is the main street of Toronto's gay village.
The Parade started and when it made the turn to Yonge, there were loud cheers, cameras snapping, and hands waving..
The crowd at Yonge-Bloor. Imagine the whole CROWD for the Parade.
The rainbow flag.
A somber start: It's the March for Those Who Can't..
PRIDE TORONTO. Flags and signboards.
The magic rainbow schoolbus.
People on these floats are participants from organizations, etc. They throw stuffs at the people, like condoms, beads necklaces, sweets, cards.. They also use water guns to wet us.
The purple man. I think he is from the UofT Engineering group..
Masquerade!
Superman and Captain America!
Toronto's Mayor, David Miller.
A fireman on top of a fire-truck. He had an extinguisher and was pointing to us just as in the picture. Naturally we thought he was going to spray, but turns out it should be an empty one.
A 'Just Married' Mounties (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the national police). What an ingenious sign!
There were alot of floats with loud music and dancing. I love those that throw beads and have music. There were floats that played a remix of Kelly Clarkson's 'Because of You' and Shakira's 'Hips Don't Lie'.
Prevent AIDS, a message from the ACT.
Then, look what I got. There's a condom and a lubricant in it.
Guy on stilts from TD Canada Bank.
The TD Canada Bank float. Ahem, I bank at TD. Anyway, more music and dancing, with green beads giveaway!
Six-coloured flags.
Trojan condom's float.
So guess what they dragged in? Trojans!
Quirky headband.
VIA Rail Canada's float. How creative!
Canada is one of the few nations that legalized same-sex marriage.
In drag.
Rainbow fence.
The Green Party's float. There were many other political parties that came. Like NDP and Liberal. Conservatives are, erm..
Banana, anyone?
No discrimination from Anglicans.
This says it all.
My favourite float! Those metal poles lead on to..
A big rainbow flag..
A very long, big rainbow flag.
An Asian carwash. This was hilarious.
Fearless!
More flamboyant costumes.
Bagpipes!
Madam Butterfly.
Air Canada's float. I wonder how heavy they are..
Fucking fearless!
Extra lolly?
Sure thing.
Motorola's float. Rainbow bikes, matching humans sold separately.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple balloons.
Sports theme: Water polo.
Sports theme: Football.
Sports theme: Soccer. This was nice; there's the World Cup and the big ball was thrown around with the crowd. Sadly, not at my area.
Sun-God-like.
CIBC's float. CIBC is TD's competition.
PRIDE TORONTO. I think this was the last float..
Some group pictures while the Parade was passing through. I wonder where I was looking at then..
Shot 1; with one unprepared.
Shot 2; Nora, Juyenty, Me and Kusuma.
Me and my brother at the end of the Parade after he met up with us. He walked in the Parade with some university association to reduce tuition fees. TUITION FEES SUCK! Anyway, I only got a back shot of him with his angel halo. We kept calling out when we saw him, but he was at the other side and the group walked past quickly.
Juyenty, Nora, my brother and Kusuma standing somewhere along Bloor Street after the Parade.
People leaving, and the garbage truck here to clean up.
We ate at Red Lobster!
My seafood treat. Three choices with a side dish, and a cup of soup earlier on. I had a few bites (a scallop, a prawn, some strands of crab alfredo and fries) before taking this picture, so it looks kind of bare.. ;p
I had to post this despite me looking so haggard and tired, which I was. Had stood for 2-hours, tip-toeing and arching backwards, then walked a distance to Red Lobster. Anyway, the plushie I'm holding was a giveaway from Stag Shop, which sells sex toys, etc. Kusuma got this bear/dog with its assets hanging out.
Me after the meal with my beads. I look so much better.
That was it. There are still alot of pictures that me and Nora took. Some had nudity; there was also a group of males that walked bare naked in the Parade, and females topless. We ran out of memory to take more pictures, and I was even afraid that my battery would die. Had to scan through and delete pictures to make space. Many other floats, some which I didn't bother taking pictures for. The funny thing was, I always stop clicking the camera button whenever there's a float that throws freebies in my direction. LOL!
Went home all full and exhausted. Still, had so much fun. Never went for such a major celebration/parade before at downtown despite being here for a year and a half. This made me feel more like a Torontonian, with others around me celebrating an event of the city and its people. So this is my first time at Toronto's Pride Parade. We have all agreed to go next year.