Not only did today’s wind ground the Blue Angels, it swept away the giant beach ball during the Alki Beach Pride preview flag event today. But there was a happy ending – we’ll get to that in a bit. First: Alki Beach Pride is celebrating its 12th anniversary, organized by Stacy and Jolie Bass-Walden of Alki, and will be an all-day festival two weeks from today. In advance of that, they again gathered dozens of people at the beach to unfurl giant flags lent by Seattle Pride (which you’ll recall honored Stacy with a major award this year). The event began with the arrival of Dykes on Bikes:
(WSB photos by Torin Record-Sand)
Then everybody headed from Blue Moon Burgers across the street to the sand:
The flags were rolled out:
Among the volunteers – District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka:
The giant beach ball joined the party:
As the video atop this story shows, plenty of pep talks, and coaching on doing “The Wave” with “The Flags,” before the ball caught the breeze and flew away:
The ball seemed a potentially lost cause:
The celebration carried on anyway, back at Blue Moon, with DJ Brick the Doll:
Then later in the day, we learned from Alki Beach Pride tonight, the beach ball was recovered and returned:
So all’s well that ends well. This was only the start of the celebration – on Saturday, August 15th, noon-8 pm, the heart of the beach will be alive with music, vendors, food, and community – find the lineups here as the day gets closer.