[Klondike]

If full nudity in a city street parade is that rare, that makes the Fremont Parade just that more impressive. I did a little digging, because I wanted to know a bit more about street parades in general (with nudity or partial nudity). So, in brief:

1) the techno parades - Love parade (Berlin) was the biggest, followed by the Zurich Street Parade and the Budapest Parade. There are numerous offshoots, including love parade SF. These are often huge, techno or rave parties in the streets. More party than parade. Semi naked girls often occur in sort of designated areas behind railings.

2) Gay pride parades and dyke marches. Gay Pride parades are LBTG (Lesbian, bisexual, transexual and gay) events with a more or less common heritage that trace back to the stonewall riots in NYC, 1969. The Christopher street parade is one such LBTG event, and most major cities have one. Dyke Marches, on the other hand, are like women-only equivalents of Gay pride parade, and they often occur on the same weekend as the GP event. The first dyke march in the US was held in 1993.

3) Folsom Street Fair - more fetish and leather than gay, or at least, not affiliated with more typical Gay Pride parades. There is no actual "parade" at the Folsom Street Fair.

4) Rio Carnival and derivatives - including Mardi Gras. These all have their origins in Catholic religious traditions, and historically take place in February coinciding with Epiphany ( a holiday). Sometimes held in daylight, sometimes at night, parades are held all over the world. Rio carnival costumes are imitated in countless smaller parades, and are sometimes just as nude (notting Hill, Mission Carnival SF) but usually not.

5) Fantasy Fest - Fantasy Fest is unique, or at least has a separate origin from the others , being the brainchild of business interests in Key West, Florida. There is a parade during Fantasy Fest week, but the event is really billed as a street party, not parade.

6) Fremont Parade - the Fremont Parade has elements of Rio Carnival, but is a solstice parade (celebrating summer) and there are many others but none of the others have nudity that I know of.

7) all the others - I've just scratched the surface really, and there is all kinds of other stuff (Mermaid Parade, Doodah Parade, How Berkeley Can You Be parade, etc, etc..).

I leave you with a pic set that is well worth reposting. This is from the 2005 Fremont Parade, and shows one of the few nude walkers relaxing a bit in front of some Fremont onlookers. Nice NIP moment....