Saturday was
Fairmount's annual Bastille Day celebration, and since this is our first year living in the area, we were quite excited to experience the festivities first hand. I spent Saturday morning stitching us up some revolutionary hats, and then we headed out for some lunch and, of course, French beer.
We ate lunch and people-watched at a local restaurant for awhile before the real action began. There were some people milling about in French Aristocracy costumes, along with a cardinal and some fellow revolutionaries. I'm not sure if these people were the event organizers or just really into Bastille Day, but they were REAL costumes.
As compared to our costumes, which did boast home-made hats but were lacking in most other aspects. However, Joe and I were really the only other people we saw dressed up.
Several local businesses had booths set up along the street with dunk tanks, cheese and wine pairing lessons, food, and face painting. I loved the intricate airbrushing and rhinestone details of the face painting. What an amazing way to transform silly cartoon characters on a child's cheek to a work of art!
We decided to enter a costume contest and pushed ourselves to the front of the crowd, only then realizing that the other participants consisted of professionally costumed aristocrats, a General Lafayette, and a little kid dressed like a pirate. Those of you who know me can attest that standing in costume in front of a huge crowd on a public street with a cup full of beer is not something I do often. Apparently Saturday was exception, because there we stood. The announcer yelled out descriptions to the crowd and voting was cheer-based. Here we have an aristocrat with a heart shaped mole, General Lafayette, etc, etc, and two drunk Parisians!
The crowd went wild and we ended up winning two bottles of wine and some Philly t-shirts!
With all the class of revolting French peasants, Joe used his keys to open the bottle of wine. He may have sprayed a few white shirts with red vino, but I think after a few sips from the bottle no one really cared.
So for the main event, a local restaurant owner dresses up as Marie Antoinette and gets on top of the "Bastille" aka Eastern State Penitentiary and banters back and forth with the executioner, who is the owner of another neighborhood restaurant. Eventually Marie yells "Let them eat cake!" and her army throw 2000 Twinkies over the wall of the Penitentiary. What a hilarious sight.
The army surrendered and Marie was brought out to the guillotine.
The crowd was surveyed. I believe "off with her head" was the chosen option, but instead they cut the head off a watermelon wearing a wig. It was such a crazy fun day!
P.S. Several people have asked me why this event exists. Duh, for fun!
Saturday was Fairmount's annual Bastille Day celebration, and since this is our first year living in the area, we were quite excited to experience the festivities first hand. I spent Saturday morning stitching us up some revolutionary hats, and then we headed out for some lunch and, of course, French beer. 
We ate lunch and people-watched at a local restaurant for awhile before the real action began. There were some people milling about in French Aristocracy costumes, along with a cardinal and some fellow revolutionaries. I'm not sure if these people were the event organizers or just really into Bastille Day, but they were REAL costumes. 
As compared to our costumes, which did boast home-made hats but were lacking in most other aspects. However, Joe and I were really the only other people we saw dressed up.
Several local businesses had booths set up along the street with dunk tanks, cheese and wine pairing lessons, food, and face painting. I loved the intricate airbrushing and rhinestone details of the face painting. What an amazing way to transform silly cartoon characters on a child's cheek to a work of art!
We decided to enter a costume contest and pushed ourselves to the front of the crowd, only then realizing that the other participants consisted of professionally costumed aristocrats, a General Lafayette, and a little kid dressed like a pirate. Those of you who know me can attest that standing in costume in front of a huge crowd on a public street with a cup full of beer is not something I do often. Apparently Saturday was exception, because there we stood. The announcer yelled out descriptions to the crowd and voting was cheer-based. Here we have an aristocrat with a heart shaped mole, General Lafayette, etc, etc, and two drunk Parisians! 
The crowd went wild and we ended up winning two bottles of wine and some Philly t-shirts! 
With all the class of revolting French peasants, Joe used his keys to open the bottle of wine. He may have sprayed a few white shirts with red vino, but I think after a few sips from the bottle no one really cared.
So for the main event, a local restaurant owner dresses up as Marie Antoinette and gets on top of the "Bastille" aka Eastern State Penitentiary and banters back and forth with the executioner, who is the owner of another neighborhood restaurant. Eventually Marie yells "Let them eat cake!" and her army throw 2000 Twinkies over the wall of the Penitentiary. What a hilarious sight. 
The army surrendered and Marie was brought out to the guillotine. 
The crowd was surveyed. I believe "off with her head" was the chosen option, but instead they cut the head off a watermelon wearing a wig. It was such a crazy fun day!
P.S. Several people have asked me why this event exists. Duh, for fun!
5 comments:
Put more pictures of the tall, good looking guy in the red hat.
I like what you did with the bottle/keys picture.... makes it look surreal.
bahaha ~sam-o
Oh Yeah, Anonymous JOE.
What a fun day! Loved the pics. Cool face art. Wish I were there.
Nice shirt too.
"What an amazing way to transform silly cartoon characters on a child's cheek to a work of art!"... umm yeah or your drunk roommate's face!!!
I'd like to see more pictures of the tall good looking guy in the red hat, too please.
And firemen.
k?
Fun post!!!
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