Procession of the Species

The 19th Annual Procession of the Species Celebration was on Saturday.

It's a weekend of events honoring Earth Day and partnered with the Olympia Arts Walk in which businesses sponsor the display of artists' works. This year there were 128 businesses participating and hundreds of artists. Friday night kicks off the celebration with music performances all over the city then at 9:30pm is the Element of Spirit Luminary Procession which celebrates the element of Spirit with a parade of lights. I've never been to this procession. Next year.

This year I finally made it to the Procession of the Species which takes place at 4:30pm on Saturday afternoon.

It's a real "grassroots" parade where anyone can join, make their own costume and participate. Lots of various groups organized by families, schools, and clubs. Some groups are specifically organized for the procession. It's very community-oriented.

They meet for months prior to the day planning, designing, decorating, and practicing their routines. There are costume workshops and dance classes all over town leading up to the day.

I arrived early on Saturday and walked the procession route looking at art and watching people. I headed to the start of the procession to see what was happening. The energy was high. Everyone was laughing and smiling. Each group had their own music, mostly African drums which was really cool. Everyone dancing to choreographed steps. It was amazing to see all the bugs dancing together over there, the jelly fish swaying to my right, and the wolves howling beyond.

Organizing the chaos must be a miracle, but everyone seemed to know exactly where to go and what to do as they self-placed themselves within one of the four elements of the universe: Earth, Air, Water and Fire as designated by the signs.

For instance, if you are a dragonfly or a bumble bee, you would be grouped in the flying insects within the element of "Air".

Flowers and animals are groups under "Earth".



Sunshine under "Fire".

Sealife under water.



There were lots of jelly fish with costumes made with umbrellas or plastic bags. This little girl had a great technique. She would walk high on her toes, then would bend her knee and step down so her plastic jelly fish head would puff looking like a real jelly fish.

This is SambaOlyWa, a samba group. Every year they select a new theme. This year they were grey wolves so everyone dressed in grays and blacks, some had animal prints on their shirts, others wore little wolf ears or tails. There were at least 100 members including the drummers all dancing together. I'm not sure of the significance of the long white skirted women at the front of the group. Founders?

 



In compliance with the Earth Day theme, there is a strong emphasis on recycling so lots of recycled products are used for costumes and accessories. Lots of papier mache and cardboard.

This whale sculpture was really cool.

As it got closer and everyone was oooh-ing and aaah-ing, someone exclaimed, "Oh my god, it's made from plastic grocery bags!" The fin was made from old styrofoam. The handlers were rolling it down the street on grocery carts. Brilliant.

Then on the flip side, as they turned it, it was more recycled materials as a skeleton. Brilliant message.

The kids were adorable.

These little frogs were energetically hopping down the street. I was near the beginning. I wondered how long before they would exhaust themselves.

These are the viruses. HA! I didn't get a photo of the group in front who had another virus sculpture and were dressed in their bathrobes.

My favorite, the dandelions.

Their headdresses were really incredible and I wonder where they got their matching green outfits.

Love this family of hedgehogs. HAHAHAHA

Those are clothespins on their backs. HAHAHAHA

This was really cool and kinetic, although difficult to capture in a photo since everything was moving so fast. These are dolphins and the blue the water. The people are dressed in blue running up and down the "rapids" holding dolphin wind kites so the dolphins looked like they were jumping through the waves.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the giant slug, but it left a trail of yellow and red paint as slime. You can see it on the street in the photo below. I'm still pondering how they did that. You can also see the chalk all over the street.

Prior to the procession, kids were decorating the pavement with chalk which was provided and sold by an organization. Fun.

What a wonderful celebration of happy people honoring the earth. So fun.