Willy Street Fair 2014

This year's Willy Street Parade had the usual components--the Bubble Mobile, the Wacky Wheeler, and stilt walkers--but not as many drummers. As I've done in the past, I tried to encourage some Chinese students to come along, but the ones I talked to had to get some homework done. The parade always starts at 11 am on the Sunday of the Willy Street Fair, a neighborhood festival held over a September weekend on Madison's Williamson Street. A September 1998 article in the Chicago Tribune, "Willy Street Fair a Hip Dose Of Madison," explains, although the article leaves out that the fair is also on Saturday.

 

The Bubble Mobile especially makes me feel as if I'm in a Dr. Seuss story. As thousands of small soap bubbles float up from the converted instruments, Jim Wildeman stands in the back turning out huge bubbles. The parade route was much more crowded than appears to be in my photos. I picked times and spots to get good views.

 

Here's the inside of the convertible at the end of the parade.

 

My other favorite is the Wacky Wheeler. Afterwards I talked with  "Melvin" as he was packing up. He got the idea from watching a performance that used a German wheel (see this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_gymnastics  ) and converted a wheel used to roll out cable for electric companies. Besides the Willy Street Parade, he takes part in about 70 parades in the US.

One of the reasons that I like to attend Madison's neighborhood fairs is to talk with people at the tables set up by organizations. This year's Willy Street Fair included Planned Parenthood, the Madison Blues Society, HI-Madison, WORT (the community radio station), Mothers Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the  John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and Friends of Aztalan State Park. Live music stages sat at a few spots next to the street, and many food and craft vendors lined its length.