I went to see how the celebrations that were sponsored by the parks department and some of our local politicians such as Felix Ortiz. The first thing I noticed was that they held the event inside the gymnasium at the Sunset Park recreation center. The space was woefully small for the number of people that actually showed up. They should have held the event outside rather than indoors. The only people who got a decent view of what was going on were the people in the first row at the ropes that had been used to cordon off a substantial portion of the center of the gymnasium. All in all it was a rather tepid show compared to the one next day on Sunday. It was nevertheless a colorful display of Chinese music dancing and arts and included the necessary display of Lion Dancing. I hope that barring bad weather when they hold the event next year it will be held outside rather than indoors which roved to be totally inadequate to the event.
I did not make the celebrations on time this past Sunday for the festivities as I always do. It's usually a lot of boring speeches by politicians anyway. I got there kind of late after the march up the avenue was over. Nevertheless, I did get some great shots of the aftermath where lion dancers and Taoist priests visit the local stores and drive out "evil spirits". I did manage however to get a few interesting shots of the post ceremony celebrations. I hope to get luckier at next year's event.
