Free enterprise is something of an oxymoron. It's seldom free, for either the merchant or the buyer. But once in a while....
The Vancouver Folk Festival was on this weekend. It's been held for twenty-five or thirty years, and each year the market on the beach outside the gates has grown and grown. This year, from the look of it, there must have been 150-200 booths or tents, sprawling across beach and park, selling everything from saris to bikinis, bongs to bongos, antiques to jewellery. What a market!
In previous years, we've volunteered at the folk festival, and came to love the beach market. This year, we didn't volunteer, we didn't enter the (pricey) festival grounds at all, we just went for the marketplace.
What a lovely day. The sounds of great world music can often be heard from the festival grounds. But the real entertainment in the market is in the vibrant array of people passing by. And it was packed! Only at this one time of year, and at this one event, do I realize how the 60's 'hippy spirit' is alive and well, and living in Vancouver. There's no finer place to celebrate diversity and show off one's own unique style: the wilder the better. The talent! There's dread-locking, henna applications, drum-making, costumery, all well represented, by vendors and by strolling folks. Hula hoops and fairy skirts. Moroccan spice tea in a giant, round, gorgeous tent. Brilliant tie-dyes.
I do love diversity. Long live this anarchic ad hoc marketplace. May it never be organized. 'Humble yourself in the arms of the wild.'
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