Today we enjoyed lunch at home and then walked a couple blocks from our place to watch the 14th annual São Paulo Pride Parade. Like any proper event ran by drag queens as Mistresses of Ceremonies, the 12 Noon
sharp opening took place promptly at 1.15 pm. Knowing this we didn't bother leaving the apartment until almost 2 pm, and timed it perfectly as the parade was just coming into view coming down Rua da Consolação. You can just barely see the rainbow of balloons. Consolação is generally eight to ten lanes in width plus parking, which was removed for today. As on Avenida Paulista where the parade started, ALL lanes were full of people...
A few minutes later the street was packed. We don't use 'floats' as American parades often do, here we use huge sound trucks - basicly giant speakers pulled by a semi, with a few self-important people on the top. There were 20 of these. The volumne is sufficent to loosen any phlegm or ear wax you may have. My hearing may return by Tuesday...
The street generally fills up until it is almost impossible to walk. there are two other streets that parallel this one which are also full. Not wanting to be trapped yet again for hours in one spot, after an hour we headed back home. This looks towards our area of downtown, the Church of Consolação can be seen, the old Hilton (round tower at left) the Italia and Copan buildings and right behind the yellow sign in center is the backside of our building. The previously almost empty street is no more...
This is a helicopter shot of Avenida Paulista, where the parade starts. This street is ten lanes in width and this view looks back about 10-15 blocks or so, the crowds also fill side streets and back much further to about 25-30 blocks, just below the bottom of the pic the parade makes a right turn onto Rua da Consolação and comes down the hill to downtown where I live.
Final numbers aren't in yet, but with the sunny weather it looks like we again had more than 3 million people. It's the largest parade in the world. The police made an added effort to control alcohol sales this year so there were fewer drunks and more families, although the use of various herbs was strong in the air although the police ignored that.
So, overall a good week.
