8th Annual Baltimore Bubble Parade
Held this year on Saturday, May 12th in Riverside Park, Baltimore.
This video was created by Darian Jones.
Recap
This year was the first year the Bubble Parade transitioned from a free to a ticketed event. As much as I want to be able to do everything for free, the bigger and more fun I do things, the more expensive things get.
We didn’t beat our highest number from last year, but transitioning from a free to paid event is actually a very big deal, so the fact that we had more than 50% turnout from last year is pretty fantastic! I REALLY appreciate you guys!
It rained all week long and everyone was worried it was going to rain on Saturday, but I told you all: It never rains on me! And it didn’t. The weather was beautiful, partly cloudy, and 70 degrees. A perfect lovely late spring day in Riverside Park in South Baltimore.
This year the hours were expanded from two to three. So we got to party for two hours, and we had many more options to choose from as to what to play with!
Brightly dressed and costumed participants played with a parachute, big bubble wands, rope wands, skip its, jump ropes, balls, and other lawn toys and games.
New this year were 4.5 foot tall bubble towers and an inflatable section!
The entire time, April’s Twisted Entertainment provided us with an incredible large scale bubble show!
They entered the Mystery Raffle for a surprise prize, enjoyed lunch from the Althea’s Almost Famous food truck and other handheld snacks from DMV Snow Cones, and danced to the lovely tunes from DJ Greg Goose.
They also made use of the digital Pixilated Photobooth with boxes of unique hats, accessories, and other props provided by the event. (This was a perfect way to send a memento of the event directly to your phone so it was ready for you even before you were home.)
People had the option to have the faerie, Dictionaria, give them their secret word, get their body (henna) tattooed by Sanna, or play and learn about instruments from South Baltimore Music Academy.
After two hours, everyone lined up to make the .4 mile walk (parade) around the park where thousands of bubbles were blown and a true display of joy, fun, and play was created for the neighborhood.
After the parade, the winners of the Costume Contest (best dressed adult, child, and dog) as -well as some runner-ups, and Mystery Raffle were announced.
Collaborators
April’s Twisted Entertainment
April Gomez of April’s Twisted Entertainment provided us with a spectacular bubble show!
She also offers Face Painting, Stilt Walking, Henna Tattoos, Fire Dancing, Fire Eating, Balloon Sculpting and more!
Dictionaria
Dictionaria of the Bookish Fae lives in a secret room in the infinite library.
She flittered out for The Bubble Parade to offer her famous service of combing through her giant dictionary for each person’s perfect magic word.
Henna By Sanna
Henna By Sanna (Rafia) is a self-taught Muslim Henna artist practicing in the DMV area for the past 6 years.She works with henna, jagua, and mehndi tattoos and is excited to elevate your look!
Sno Blast DMV
Sno Blast DMV vended handcrafted snow cones, cotton candy, popcorn, and baked goods!
They bring all the best sweets and treats to make any party a BLAST!
South Baltimore Music Academy
South Baltimore Music Academy came to recruit tiny musicians and future rockstars!
They are SoBo’s newest spot for music lessons for ages 5 and up!
The sister campus to East Baltimore’s Patterson Park Academy of Music, SoBo Music Academy is dedicated to fun and high quality lessons in piano, guitar, violin, cello, and drums!
For Baltimore’s littlest musicians, SoBo Music offers parent and child classes for ages 0-5!
DJ Greg Goose
DJ Greg Goose AKA Steve kicked off his FIRST GIG with the Bubble Parade! He is excited to continue spreading fun and music at future events and you can contact him at gregorygooseprod@gmail.com.
Althea’s Almost Famous
More Merriment
Photos
All photos in the above carousel are by Mary Braman. If you repost, please credit her. @mbraman152 on Instagram.
All photos in the above carousel are by Glenda Roberts. If you repost, please credit her. @moosebeme on Instagram.
All photos in the above carousel are by Desmond Johnson. If you repost, please credit him. @picturesofusdotnet on Instagram.
Testimonials
Costume Contest +
Mystery Raffle
Congrats to the winners
Best dressed Adult, Child, and dog + Mystery RAFFLE WINNER
Photobooth
All photos in the above carousel are by Desmond Johnson. If you repost, please credit him. @picturesofusdotnet on Instagram.
Photobooth
The photos from the Pixilated Photobooth.
About Your Host
Mary Uncustomary England
Merriment Maker
Mary is published author, life coach, event speaker, podcaster, and team building facilitator. She has two degrees in Psychology and has run her own business since 2013, where she created her own job title as Merriment Maker.
She was previously in management of a Day Program of a psychiatric rehabilitation center, has one mental illnesses of her own, and knows it’s not necessary to be naturally happy or have a positive past in order to have a fun life or beautiful future.
She has turned her life around with Merriment, and she knows Merriment can change your life, too. When you’re ready she welcomes you to join her in the Uncustomary Universe, be it in the Merriment Makers Membership group or working with her 1:1.
Moments Of Gratitude
💖🫧 Falling off the giant inflatable duck 💖🫧 Watching April blow bubbles through her hand 💖🫧 The babe with the rainbow fans dancing at the very end 💖🫧 Meeting Althea 💖🫧 The little girl being so sad she hit me with the Skip It and being able to console her by letting her know I’m glad she genuinely cares (and that same girl riding the giant beach ball) 💖🫧 The boy who was enjoying his gummy worms so much he didn’t even know he was underneath the parachute 💖🫧 The kid Max who walked next to me during the Parade and honestly just his whole vibe 💖🫧 The girl who walked next to me during the parade who told me to get a Jeep 💖🫧 The woman with the striped jacket and spring hat 💖🫧 Going up to kids with my giant bubble gun and blasting them in the face and watching their expressions 💖🫧 Trying SO hard to get that one girl encased in a giant hula hoop bubble 💖🫧 The die hards who have come to every year’s event 💖🫧 When the little girl was crying before we were about to start the parade and I asked if she needed a nap and a water and the DMV Sno Cones just gave us a water and she stopped crying while her mom held her 💖🫧 The video of the girl who won the best costume beating up the banana pepper inflatable I saw the next day 💖🫧 Doing the macarena 💖🫧 Watching the infants and toddlers walk throught the very small rows of pinwheels and knocking them over 💖🫧 The group of butterfly girls 💖🫧 The bubble towers 💖🫧 The vision impaired kid feeling and licking the bubble towers and his mom telling me they made his day 💖🫧 The way Leroy laid out my magnets and smiled while he did it 💖🫧 Braylinn’s mouth bubbles 💖🫧 The lady who thought the watermelon blanket was a prop and wore it as a dress 💖🫧 April’s dad pulling me aside and telling me I did a good job 💖🫧 Watching the kids throw the giant inflatable duck way far out in the park 💖🫧 The one kid who kept trying to steal my giant gun (and I let him) 💖🫧 Those two babes in the red on the picnic blanket who looked like some sort of magazine ad 💖🫧 The two boys in matching button up shirts 💖🫧 The pregnant babe getting her belly henna tattooed 💖🫧 The dad twirling his daughter around 💖🫧 That we got the code for the portapotties 30 seconds before we were about to break the locks off 💖🫧 How 90 minutes later you couldn’t even tell that we were there
Thank You
Last year I realized I couldn’t do things alone and got help with the Bubble Parade. As a result, things were better than ever. This year, I realized the more I collaborated, the better things could be. I could not have done that without the following people.
DJ Steve / Greg Goose vibrant music, mood, and announcements
Mary for the stunning photos and documentation of participants enjoying the event
Darian for the video documentation so we can feel like we were there
April of April’s Twisted Entertainment for putting on a bubble show the entire event
Kory/Aversa PR for helping me write a good press release and link me up with WJZ/CBS
WBAL for having me on their morning show
Althea and her crew for providing delicious Jamaican food with Althea’s Almost Famous Food Truck
Dictionaria (Jude) for providing magical secret words to anyone who desired one
DMV Sno Cones (Erika) for offering yummy and colorful handheld snacks
Henna by Sanna (Raffi) for tattooing people’s bodies with gorgeous designs
South Baltimore Music Academy (Josh + Erik) for encouraging young people to be musicians
Jim, Leroy, and Tavon for unloading the truck and troubleshooting issues as we set everything up
Ashley for running my merch table
Shekeihia for taking ticket orders and giving out wristbands
Adebe for keeping all the bubble machines and stands full
Lorenzo for being in charge of the photobooth and props
Victor for helping us break everything down and pack the truck
Desmond for taking incredible photos of the photobooth the entire event and helping set up
Glenda for taking lovely photos of the event and capturing people’s expressions
Lola for taking photos of the event and remembering to get group shots of my friends
Heather for donating bears for presents to the costume winner runner-ups
My Dad for taking a head count, bringing small bills, and telling me he’s proud of me
My Matt for absolutely everything; for carrying everything under the sun, putting up flyers, making sure I drank water, bringing me chapstick, noticing things I didn’t, troubleshooting things I couldn’t handle, and being the absolute best in every way
To everyone who dressed up, donated, purchased something, shared the event, came, participated, blew bubbles, had fun, followed me on social media, wished me good luck, told me they saw me on TV, carried something, or supported me on the way here.
