A marcher welcomes Doo Dah Parade viewers
Discover LA by Metro:
The Doo Dah Parade Hits Pasadena on April 30, 2011 — Start Making Plans for the 2012 Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade on April 28, 2012.
Hey, kids! What time is it? It’s time for the 34th Occasional Doo Dah Parade!
Silver wings swoosh through the Doo Dah Parade route.
Yes, the incredible, unpredictable, sometimes bizarre, often risqué, and always entertaining Doo Dah Parade will grace Colorado Blvd. in East Pasadena again on Saturday, April 30, 2011, starting at 11 am and ending when all of the marchers and floats have finished promenading.
You’ll enjoy a mind-boggling variety of elaborate vehicles, drill teams, belly dancers, groups marching with good-natured political signs and statements, stilt walkers, and more. There are no equestrian units, but impossibly cute dogs in silly costumes are enjoyable substitutes.
Bring your own lawn chairs, because there are no VIP seats and no giant bleachers for this parade.
The Italian flag scoots along Colorado Blvd.
The Doo Dah Parade began in 1978 as an ad-hoc satire of the famous Pasadena Rose Parade.
It’s now organized by the Light Bringer Project, a non-profit Pasadena arts organization that produces visual, performing and literary arts programs that highlight creative voices from all sectors of the community. Their projects focus on public education, AIDS awareness, the environment, homelessness, economic revitalization, sexual abuse and domestic violence, and other critical areas. For comedy relief, they produce the Doo Dah Parade.
The Kinetic Pastry Science Mobile Muffins tempt Doo Dah viewers.
The parade moved from Downtown Pasadena to East Pasadena last year, but it’s still on Colorado Blvd, like its older, stuffier sibling.
We photographed last year’s extravaganza, and we were dazzled by the imagination shown by the floats and marchers.
Boo-Boo Kitty moves its head, opens its jaw, and spits at the Doo Dah Parade audience.
Many of the same zanies have signed up this year. Marchers with costumes as imaginative as their names include the Kinetic Pastry Science Mobile Muffins, a humongous robotic spitting cat named Boo-Boo Kitty, Her Royal Highness Queen Erica Valentine, Cheap Sax Addicted to Love, The Martini Kings & Swing-o-matic, Linoleum Bonaparte, the World Champion Whistling Diva, and the Million Marijuana March.
The Motorized Couch is the best seat at the Doo Dah Parade.
Along with the immortal and perennial favorite Doo Dah house band Snotty Scotty & the Hankies, there’s the Motorized Couch, The Bra-Ettes Dancing Bras, What Happened in Vegas Should Have Stayed, Gallery at the End of the World, Girls Who Draw Girls on Roller Skates, BBQ & Hibachi Marching Grill Team, The Highland Park Thursday Evening Gentlemen’s Society Circuit Bending Marching Band & Ladies’ Auxiliary, the Bastard Sons of Lee Marvin, Howdy Krishna, Mystik Krewe d’Dieux Dah, Zombies of Debt, Dr. Steel’s Army of Toy Soldiers, and many more!
“Topless” in Pasadena’s Doo Dah Parade.
We’ll be there again this year, and we look forward to seeing you!
The parade covers two blocks on Colorado Blvd. between Altadena Drive and San Gabriel Blvd. The marchers cover a loop, so both sides of Colorado get an equal view.
From the Gold Line’s Sierra Madre Villa Station, you can walk or bicycle to the parade (it’s about a mile), or take the Foothill Transit 187 bus from the station to Colorado and San Gabriel Blvds.
See the maps below for details.
The Pink Slipped Teachers of California tell Doo Dah viewers what they think.
Walk or bike from the Sierra Madre Villa station to the parade.
Take the Foothill Transit 187 bus from Sierra Madre Villa to the parade.
The 34th Occasional Doo Dah Parade
Saturday, April 30, 2011, 11 am — approximately 1 pm
Colorado Blvd. between Altadena Drive and San Gabriel Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
This is my fourth year marching in the doo-dah and every year it’s a blast! I dress an Aztec Warrior throwing beads to the enthusiastic crowd! Get ready for twenty twelve it’s gonna be enlightening!! 2012
Thanks for your comment, Victor! We’re looking forward to seeing you next year!
Me too — I always seem to find out about the Doo Dah parade when I see it on the evening news. Years ago I was in invited to go and had a great time. It was my first introduction to the Briefcase Drill Team and the Shopping Cart Drill Team. And they were good!
I am looking forward to this blog. The light rail systems are great and easy to use and it will be fun to go places without having to drive and park — and I can take my bike.
Thanks for the valuable info. Every year I forget when the Doo Dah parade is and I’m always slapping my forehead when watching highlights about it on the nightly news. Your blog and site are constantly a source of valuable information about goings on that are Metro accessible. I’m especially interested now since I have to take out a loan just to put gas in my car. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for your kind words, Rick! And we love your website! See you at the parade!