I didn't want to walk to the courthouse and back (I'd miss the Jets game at 1pm). The "pre-parade prep" is very nearby (Sears parking lot) and early, and this staging area in and around the lot is much more interesting.
It's kind of a madhouse as large groups of kids, bands, dancers, and vehicles are all mixed up while primping and practicing. Instead of trying to get shots of them from a spot along the parade route from the same angle and with the same background, I can get poses, candids, and basically anything I want.
I can also find unusual things that aren't seen in the parade, such as a truck that was packed with big speakers pumping out LOUD music while parked next to a Port-a-John that had people on line waiting to use it. It's like music was being provided as entertainment for the people who were waiting to use the facilities.
It was a Port-a-Party!
I have 15 pictures and 2 videos to show, so I'll have to make 2 posts.
This post starts out with a sign regarding the parking on Main St over the 2 days of the Festival and Parade:
This shows empty Main St from Anderson to Passaic Streets before the parade:
OK - it wasn't COMPLETELY empty. Gotta have SOME police presence, right?
This is Main St looking south from Passaic St:
On the way back from Passaic St, I saw these two carts that appeared to be racing, so I held out my cellcam to get a picture. The driver of the near cart must have thought I was flagging him down because he pulled right over and asked if I wanted one of the handful of little US flags he had. I guess the carts were distributing them to the people along the parade route:
By the staging area, the first thing I saw were the 3 mounted cops on horses, who appeared to be protecting Holy Trinity School from something:
Continuing north, I saw the trolley and the HHS football team:
A little further north was this DPW truck, which should look like this all the time (and I'm not even Italian):
I headed back toward the Sears lot and got a picture of these bikes and then did some non-alcoholic lot shots and videos, which you can see in the next post:
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