Pride Parade 2011

As you may already know Toronto hosts an annual Pride Parade each summer and it's awesome! For some reason, I'm always unavailable when they hold the parade, so last year was my first time going. I also went this year with my friends, Gary and Marcel, and we all had a blast.

For some reason, we decided all-you-can-eat sushi would be a good idea right before having to stand outside for 3 hours in the sweltering heat... Bad move! When we got to Yonge St, this is the scene we were met with:

So we ran to the dollar store to pick up umbrellas, and a funny hat for Marcel, which made him look like Crocodile Dundee. We looked like a bunch of grandmas with the umbrellas, but we were SO happy to have them because it's was HOT outside that day!

About an hour after we staked out our parade-watching spot, the street looked like this:

This guy was shooting water from a second-story window and was getting the crowed riled up (in a good way!) by yelling and screaming out the window

 

I thought this was really sweet. Although the little girl was practically slumped over (probably from the heat), but they were only about 20 minutes into the parade route, so hopefully she was able to hold it together  

 

This marching band was awesome! They were playing something that I knew was familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then they got to the chorus and I realized they were playing "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. SICK!!!

There were a lot of banners and signs to this effect. And a LOT of defaced Rob Ford masks. Rightly so though. That's what you get when you're the first T.O. mayor in years not to show at a Pride Parade. Shame!

This was defintely the high light of the parade for me: The cast of 1 Girl 5 Gays - one of my favourite shows. Of course this was the moment that my stupid SD card was full!!!! I was furiously trying to delete photos so i could take pictures of these guys, but no dice. This is the only shot I got. But I got a high five from Philip! Hola!