Festifools!

This afternoon I had the very foolish pleasure of participating in an Ann Arbor tradition for the first time: the Festifools parade. Started a few years ago by an ingenious man named Mark Tucker, a few other staff members and students of the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program, Festifools is a hilarious and wild display of creativity. The students in Tucker’s LHSP class have spent the entire semester building larger-than-life, papier-mâché puppets that more often than not require at least three people to support. A group of Art and Design students have also spent the past few weeks constructing their own puppets, and of course anyone else is invited to join in the silliness. All of these artists and their volunteer supporters are then thrown onto about three blocks of Main Street, surrounded by hundreds of Ann Arbor residents and Michigan students. In the spirit of April Fool’s day, and foolishness in general, most of the puppets were peculiar adaptations of classic characters or animals, or else somewhat satirical declarations about our culture. For instance I enjoyed one group’s juxtaposition of ancient Greek power and intelligence with the current Greek life culture of partying.

I was beyond excited when my friend Carolyn asked me to help her support the giant, meth-addicted mermaid she spent the last few months creating. As we are both currently LHSP students, I felt a certain obligation to contribute to the parade. Also, I’ve heard how fun it is to participate. The stories did not disappoint. Although it was a bit tedious and strenuous to support a heavy, cumbersome mermaid, it was extremely enjoyable to allow the mindless routine of walking, waving and high-fiving consume my behavior. We all weaved and danced in a completely un-choreographed but nonetheless rhythmic array of messiness. After about five minutes the procession was much less in the form of a parade than it was a jumbled discord of costumes, drums and confetti. All this on a bleak, cloudy day. Nothing about it made sense, at all; but that of course, is the spirit of April Fool’s Day.