This past weekend marked the two highlights of the summer. Zurich celebrated its annual Street Parade (the bastard, techno-loving, European step-brother of San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers) and I hosted the first annual Euro Trash Bash (as known as the Street Parade pre-party).
Yes, it was Euro to the extreme! The pre-party began at my place with a BBQ, bottomless drinks and the best, tackiest outfits Europe had to offer. Men were wearing man-pris, tight sleeveless tops, aviators, rocking jewelry and carrying man-purses. Women were decked out in leggings, tight brightly colored jeans, equally rocking plastic jewelry and revealing bra straps. It was truly a uniting effort with the Swiss, Americans, Kiwis, Aussies, Germans and Irish all coming together in beautiful array of color and tackiness.
Once the food was eaten and all the alcohol consumed, the pre-party, and all its glory, headed out to observe the 800,000+, even more outrageously dressed citizens of Switzerland dancing with the techno blasting “floats” (also known as flat-bed trucks with club quality sound systems and 40-50 dancers dressed in close to nothing). Having found a good truck, our group walked the parade route, following the truck and dancing in the streets. Yes, I danced to techno and actually enjoyed myself!
The techno and party continued from dusk, through the night and ended around 6am (or so I have been told). I found myself at home and in bed by 11pm with a cut toe (flip flops were a bad idea) wrapped in a piece of someone’s boxer shorts (it wouldn’t stop bleeding and it sounded like the best option at the time) and a massive bruise on my thigh (don’t even ask). Yes, the day was a complete success… I can’t wait for Euro Trash 2009!
