Gay Pride

I’d heard quite a bit of talk about the Amsterdam gay pride parade this week. It might be the largest gay pride events in Europe, and it’s one of the largest events in the Netherlands. The highlight of the event is the Saturday afternoon canal parade, where boats float down the canals and up the Amstel river.

I originally had no intention of attending, for a few reasons. First, I don’t like parades. Of any sort. I’d rather watch Jersey Shore, Glee, and Nascar than the teeth pulling Macy’s Day Parade. Second, I’m not much into pomp and flamboyance of most sorts (so, also, not a fan of sporting halftime shows, 4th of July fireworks, extravagant Christmas lights, and Kei$ha). And, finally, I’ve never totally understood “gay pride” (I won’t enumerate the reasons behind this so as to not invite well meaning explanations; instead, I’ll provide a link to an excellent article by Jesse Bering, a gay psychologist whose perspective seems fairly reasonable to me: Jesse Bering's take on gay pride).

That said, I’d made plans to go see an outdoor concert in the Vondelpark at 4pm with Hannah, whom I played ultimate frisbee with on Tuesday. We met at 2pm and decided to check out the parade first.

And, despite my lack of initial interest, I thought that the parade was totally awesome. Thousands of people were packed on the bridges and docks along the Amstel river and in small boats on the water. It was as festive and happy an atmosphere as I’ve ever experienced at a large public event. People danced in their boats, cheered as all the floats passed on the water, and drank beers and cheered.

One of the most interesting parts of the parade/festival was the family element. People walked around with their children, presumably with nary a concern that the event was threatening “family values” or, more specifically endangering the future sexual orientation of the children.

I got a nice hug from this giant…umm…court jester?

I particularly enjoyed this shirt.

And, after watching the parade for a bit, I did make it to the concert in the Vondelpark, which was also tremendous fun. It was a trio of trained female vocalists, one of which only sang, one of which also played piano, and one of which also played guitar.

They spoke to the crowd in Dutch between numbers, but they sang American songs with no trace of a Dutch accent. I’m regularly amazed with how so many of the Dutch speak/sing with virtually no accent, or at least such a subtle accent that I mistake it for Canadian or Northeastern.

Among their songs were Short People by Randy Newman, Man of Constant Sorrow (which I’m familiar with from Alison Krauss’s band, but apparently is much older), and Jolene by Dolly Parton (along with two other Dolly Parton’s).