Since 2015, I’ve been an Ambassador for the 100 Happy Days Foundation, and I’ve put on Baltimore’s chapter of the annual Bubble Parade. This year, the coordinators of Bubble Parades all over the world didn’t get their yearly e-mails and notifications for the event, though, and we didn’t get any response when we reached out. It seemed like the organizers kind of fell off the map, but some of the more die hard people decided to put it on regardless… like me! Baltimore shall have bubbles, I say!

This year, we had more people come out than ever before. My dad counted everyone who walked across the street at the end and we were over 300 strong! Holy crap!

The outfits were amazing. People really took crazy, colorful, and eclectic to heart and I couldn’t have been happier. We were a literal sea of sunshine and rainbows walking up and down The Avenue in Hampden on that Sunday in July.

As usual, I provided a bunch of bubbles for free. We had wands and event scented options! We even actually ran out of everything this year. I’m so thankful to everyone who came prepared, though. You babes really brought some cool stuff! I mean, I saw a dinosaur bubble gun that roared when you pressed the trigger. (If you’d like to make a donation for bubble supplies or to Uncustomary in general, you can do that here or use the button at the bottom of the post.)

While we gathered at the corner of the skate park on Falls Road, an amazing babe, named Molly, entertained us all with her giant homemade bubble wands. It was spectacularly beautiful and fun. She does events, too! If you need some whimsy in your life, e-mail her at mglrigby [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thank you to everyone who documented the fun! You can check out more photos in the event page. Everything in this blog post was taken by the amazing Dorret Oosterhoff.

The entire point of the Bubble Parade is to promote play in people of all ages. We should never stop playing, whatever that means for us. Bubbles are something a lot of people enjoy, and even so I was floored to see the turn out this year. It was beautiful to witness everyone from ages 0-65+ having a genuinely good time doing something silly, free, and “childlike”. Remember that it doesn’t take a lot to have a good time. Sometimes the simpler the better.

More than a dozen people came up to me to ask if we could do this every weekend or at least every season. My answer is no, I won’t be organizing that every season and definitely not every weekend. I don’t want the specialness of the event to wear off, and I also do a lot of other things (including other events!). But guess what? I’m SO GLAD you had such a great time blowing bubbles! It’s a dollar for a giant wand of bubbles, and you can even make your own solution with water and soap and your own wands with pipe cleaners or rope. You can get your friends together every weekend, or just go outside and blow bubbles a couple times a week. I know I do. Costumes, balloons, and whimsy aren’t reserved for the Bubble Parade. Bring that year round!!

There will absolutely be a 5th Annual Bubble Parade in Baltimore. I’ve had some requests to change the location, and I’ll be considering that. But I hope that you’ll stick around and come back next time (and keep the spirit of it going until then).

Photography: Dorret Oosterhoff

See 2015 and 2016