Sunday, December 02, 2012

Festival of Lights Parade 2012



The 21st annual Festival of Lights parade took place on a balmy Saturday evening in Palm Springs, with "Best Band" winners from the Palm Springs High School helping to lead things off.



The free Desert Post Weekly previewed the parade with the following hilarious description:
"If you're over the age of 30 you might remember Hasbro's Lite-Brite -- a toy that allowed kids to create an illuminated picture of their own design. The Festival of Lights Parade could be described as Lite-Brite on steroids (or acid, depending on your experiences.)"



The inspiration seems to be less Lite-Brite and more Disneyland Electronic Parade, but the Palm Springs version is delightfully homespun, as the sanitation truck ringed with lights above demonstrates.



There was even a float above that was advertising Cash for Your Used Appliances with broken-down refrigerators and ovens decorated with dollar signs and ringed with lights.



There's no War on Christmas in the Coachella Valley, so religious groups such as the Desert Chapel above were welcome to illuminate our lives...



...along with a bilingual Jews for Jesus float complete with menorah above.



The sheer surrealism of the parade is hard to beat...



...and when Santa and Mrs. Claus drove by on a float that was supposed to be a midcentury modern rooftop to mark the end of the parade, we cheered deliriously.

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