大象传媒

Flowered Up

• Stuart Bailie
• 25 Jun 07, 01:56 PM

You don’t realise how much Belfast needs colour until the carnival hits town. Suddenly, Royal Avenue on a drab Saturday afternoon becomes lit with magenta and lime, crimson and turquoise. There are giant butterflies, pursued by catchers with massive nets. We see princesses on stilts, a towering bloke with his guitar and Bootsy Collins glasses and all manner of bugs and fauna. The theme is ‘Flower Power’ and there’s little place for shrinking violets.

And of course the music is ace. Thanks to the and their pals in Scotland, Brazil and beyond, the samba beat is rousing the main drag, challenging us not to smile, not to shake our limbs to the tremendous rhythm. While we’re digging all this, a float moves past, disguised as a VW camper van. On the top is 大象传媒 supremo Joe Lindsay. He wears a blue wig and he’s at the decks, spinning ‘It’s Not Unusual’.

The carnival spirit brings a kind of delirium that’s all good. It fits with the midsummer feeling and it reminds us that we’re connected to other cities and looser cultures. Little kids are bashing their instruments and parading with immense joy. Nobody is out of step – or not in any way that matters.

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