2006 moomba parade

It is a little after 10:00am Monday morning. I have just had a lovely conversation with Elyse and I am gearing myself up to get some reading done, when I hear loud music coming from the street. Hearing street music from my bedroom is not uncommon... but this is significantly louder. So I stand up and look out my window... and discover that there is a parade going down Swanston street!


So I throw on some shoes, grab my camera and my room key, and head out onto the street. I then proceed to wander up the block in an attempt to figure out what this parade is. A guy hands me an "event program," which only slightly clarifies matters. Simply by living in an apartment in the center of the city, I have stumbled upon what it turns out is the "2006 Moomba Parade."


The parade has seven sections- each of a different color. There parade is lead by a group doing a contemporary Indigenous welcome with the story of Bunjil the Eaglehawk, Headman of the Kulin people. There is a section honouring major events, a section celebrating colour and glamour, a section commemorating the 150th anniversary of the eight-hour day, a section showing off the gardens in Melbourne, a section applauding pre-schools... and a few others. Within each section are a whole host of cultural groups, youth groups, music groups, dance groups... and even some groups which fall into all four of these categories. Something for everyone! Each group is headed by a person with a large pink bouncy ball with their group name printed on it.


I certainly thought there was nothing like the "How Berkeley Can You Be?" parade anywhere else in the world. But Melbourne continues to impress me. There was no man in a flourescent-pink skin-tight suit on a unicycle. And from what I saw there didn't appear to be anyone fully naked. And, well, it still isn't Berkeley. But this city is pretty incredible as far as culture goes.