A Pagan, Artist Filled, Night Parade in San Francisco
We marched through the entire Mission District last weekend in a ‘Night Parade’ that was full of costumed pagans, punks, artists, families, and other friendly San Franciscans.
The New Orleans Style Brass Band, Mission Delirium, kept the entire procession dancing and gyrating through the night. While a group of well-versed volunteers helped keep the traffic at bay and us punters marching in the right direction, as we danced through the streets of the Mission making nearly every onlooker smile along the way.
Here’s a video of the affair myself and a friend shot (shoutout to Lucie) :
View this post on Instagram
If you ever see or hear a brass band playing and marching, especially if it’s Mission Delerium, I suggest you go and join them. There’s something inherently great about the sound a Louisiana-styled, second line makes. That combination of instruments on the move is simply the soundtrack of a good parade.
When that parade is at night in San Francisco, you have the added bonus of light effects in costumes and mutant vehicles. The whole affair was quite pagan, super neighborly, and very San Franciscan in the sense that people just wanted to wear fun costumes and make each other smile. There were some incredible and elaborate bird-themed getups from art collective Raining Chainsaws, there was a band that played a great Devo cover song, ‘Devo ‘Gates Of Steel’, and countless other immaculately dressed heathens having a good time.
View this post on Instagram
Near the end of the processions they pulled in a large effigy of a goat, to shouts of “Goatspeed!” and “The Goat Ascension!” Everyone who wanted, wrote down their regrets from the year, or simply things they wanted to let go in 2024, on little slips of paper, and then tied them on the large wooden goat.
Then, in true Burner-heathen form, they took that goat out to a secluded shoreline, sang pagan songs, danced and embraced some more, and then lit the goat on fire.
An onlooker told me they just wanted to add, “some wacky theatrical spectacle to the parade this year that is not rooted in commerce or any religion. We were definitely inspired visually by global winter celebrations, but the goat form of our effigy was what came out of the minds of the artists who built it. If some specific symbolism is sought in the effigy it would be that we created something we loved and then made a ritual sacrifice of it as a way to say goodbye to the year (and the troubles or grievances of 2023).”
In a ceremony around the solstice, bent toward starting a new year fresh and unburdened, the pagans lit an effigy on fire, much like the temple burn at Burning Man.
A temporary autonomous zone, to exist in temporarily, free of most things, and free to let the rest go.
The burners left no trace of the fire, it’s as if the goat and the things we wished to let go of, simply disappeared into the ether.
Howdy! My name is Katy Atchison and I'm an Associate Editor for Broke-Ass Stuart.
I want to take the time to say thank you for supporting independent news media by reading BrokeAssstuart.com. Supporting independent news sources like Broke-Ass Stuart is vital to supporting our community because it amplifies the voices of a wide variety of diverse opinions. You also help support small businesses and local artists by sharing stories from Broke-Ass Stuart.
Because you're one of our supporters, I wanted to send over a pro-tip.
Our bi-weekly newsletter is a great way to get round ups of Broke-Ass Stuart stories, learn about new businesses in The Bay Area, find out about fun local events and be first in line for giveaways.
If you’d like to get our newsletter, signup right here, it takes 5 seconds.
You Might Also Like
