ONDEPENDENCE DAY

It has been a long time... I have been very busy, mainly in fun and frivolity. To win the Palio unleashes  several months of festivities, culminating in a week long crescendo, which we are living just now, in the ONDA territory. Last Saturday we had what is called the Festa nel Rione which is always a huge fancy dress affair, involving the whole neighbourhood which is sectioned off into various groups with various tasks and themes. 

Since we on the Palio on the 4rth of July, it became a Huge American Party- I was part of the 50's themed Drive In and American Diner section- here below my fellow girls:

I had spent a week or so turning my bedroom floor into a painting studio, making the Drive-In banner 

which was strung across the Via del Sambuco.

I also made the poster for the film showing in the Drive- In that night- it was of course the winning race projected on the wall of the building- and here I am with the fantino (the jockey) who was part of another group- the Avenger Superheroes...

      The streets of the Onda were thronging with about 800 people, mostly part of the Contrada and dressed in their various themed costumes:  there was the Prohibition section down one narrow dimly lit alley way where flappers were dancing with gangsters to the tune of a jazz band playing 20s and 30s music; there was the Hell's Angel Section, with three Harley Davidsons making their entrance down the Via Giovanni Dupre at the opening of the party; there was the   section where George Washington and his group were signing the Declaration of Ondependence dressed in eighteenth  century costumes and wigs: there were Hippies and there were Punks, which I thought was maybe pushing the theme a little in the wrong direction, since Punks were actiually a London thing, really...but nevermind..

There was the 70s Disco section, and the American High school section and ...and... and...

for a taste of it: 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/847924827513927

I have always complained that noone really does proper parties (apart from Cressida Bell) and if I want to have a party I have to organize it myself... and I have done, although it was a very long time ago now, in fact it was the French Revolution Party that I did in my flat in Paris in 1989...

Well, I have now ended up, obviously, where I am supposed to be. I take my hat off unconditionally- it was absolutely the best party I have ever been to. There were two girls from Brazil staying in my Airbnb, they live in Rio de Janeiro and they said they had more fun than at the Rio Carnival...                     

                               Below  my friend Carmen and I at the entrance to Via Giovanni Dupre, before it all started...    

                                           

And on Saturday there is the Victory Banquet on the Piazza del Mercato with around 800 people, and THE HORSE TABACCO in the place of honour....!

Perhaps thankfully this sort of seemingly inexhaustible merry making only happens when a Contrada wins the Palio, and some have not won for more than thirty years...