Yumemigaoka Rainbow Pride 2023!

[beautifuldreamermods]

⭐ Who: Everyone!
⭐ When: June 10th – 11th
⭐ Where: Yotsuba Park, around Koubai
⭐ What: Yumemigaoka Rainbow Pride weekend!

RAINBOW PRIDE

Since the last week or so of May, there's been posters and advertisements scattered around Yumemigaoka so everyone's known it's coming - but if you're a new arrival maybe you're still a little surprised when the weekend of the 10th rolls around and brings the 6th annual Yumemigaoka Rainbow Pride event with it! Though it's a relatively recent tradition to the city, those that take part in it seem to have turned the whole thing into a well oiled machine with a cozy festival on the 10th followed by the parade around the city on the 11th.

The weather turns out to be just right for the whole thing - apart from some passing drizzles on the 10th, the weekend is mostly dry and sunny with only a chilly wind dampening the mood occasionally. Other than that, it's perfect weather for a celebration!

Whether you're here for solidarity or just to show your support it's sure to be a good time, so why not stop by?

YOTSUBA PARK

The first part of the Rainbow Pride proceedings is the cheery and lively Rainbow Festival hosted at Yotsuba Park. There's a small entry fee of a few hundred yen, just to help offset some of the costs of running the whole thing, but once you're in and you've got your little hand stamp you're free to stay as long as you like and to come and go as you please. And as it happens, there's plenty to see!

The festival is set up a little like a summer festival at a shrine, with a central "street" of stalls and vendors leading up to the open air stage that's been set up to pump out live music. While there's some food and drink stalls at the top and bottom of this little central street, the majority of the stalls are vendors and sellers with various Pride related goods, art or are otherwise independent queer artists and crafters with some cool goods to offload on the nice folks at the festival. Those of you who attended the DU's anniversary event might find things a little familiar and... well, given that this is the DU we're talking about it shouldn't come as a surprise that there's a big overlap between "Dreamers" and "people who go to Pride".

Apart from the stalls, the main draw of the event is the stage that's been set up for today's festival. A few announcements and speeches get made from up on here but for the most part it's here to provide the promised live music for the event. The music lasts more or less all day with at most a half hour break in between acts and while it's mostly smaller, independent musicians and groups you might also spot a few familiar faces up on stage!


🌈 Ai Hoshino (liedol) will be performing a small set of three songs – a newer solo song and two from her B-Komachi days for old time's sake.
🌈 Connor Murphy (yourattention) is busting out some choreography from a performance planned for a Pride event back in the States – just uh... try not to pay any attention to how much cussing there is in the backing track.
🌈 Rue Lette (loungelizard) will be making an appearance in a killer look put together just for Pride with sax in tow and some equally killer lipsync.


... and plenty others to follow!

The event itself is an all day affair, getting started at around 9:30 in the morning and wrapping at around 10pm, with the live music acts wrapping at 8pm - consideration for the neighbours, yanno? The event is mostly a family friendly festival but the food and drink stalls will start serving alcohol at around 4pm and the final few hours of the festival will turn into a full on party!

Don't get too crazy on Saturday though - as the organizers remind everyone at the closing ceremony, there's still the Rainbow Walk through the city on Sunday so make sure you're fresh faced and ready for that!

KOUBAI

Bright and early Sunday morning, everyone shows up fresh faced and raring to go (or, you know, dragging themselves along the pavement and longing for death and/or an alka seltzer) for the second leg of the Rainbow Pride weekend – the Parade! It's a briskly paced march that heads out from the front of Koubai's most central train station and loops around the district twice before breaking off and heading to the plaza just out front of the Dreamer Union. A much more relaxed answer to yesterday's celebrations has been set up, with a few food trucks and stalls and a large tent set up with seating in the shade and out of the glare of the sun.

Once everyone's back at the tent, there's some speeches and toasting from the organizers, some cheers and promises to be back here for the next year... but mostly, the idea is to relax, unwind and just enjoy spending some time and solidarity with the people you just marched with. Maybe you'll make a new buddy or two on the way!

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Comments

Kozakura | Open

[flatcola]

Yotsuba Park

Kozakura isn't much of an event-doer. It's too bright and noisy, there are too many people, and there's no way she's staying out for the whole festival part of this even if she's making a brief appearance. It'll make a few people happy at least, probably, and she's acquired rainbow colored Crocs for good measure.

There are two goals on her list - take a peek at Ai Hoshino because her chat's been talking about her a bit lately, and acquire a beer (her ID in hand well before anyone asked for it) the size of her head to help her survive the throng.

Anyone who doesn't know her is permitted to find the sight comical. If you do know her, keep it to yourself dammit.

Rainbow Walk

...she wants another beer.

Stupid of her to get dragged into the walk, she's clearly forced herself to finish out of some twisted sense of pride (ha) despite being a bit red in the face and sore in the feet by the time she returns to the starting point. And yes, this is a normal walk that a healthy adult should be able to complete pretty easily, you're right about that, she's just weaker than many children.

[dullshooter]

Yotsuba Park - afternoon

[Misfire's well used to the concept of Pride - he's been every year - but the Yumemigaoka Rainbow Pride festival is a new experience for him. He certainly dresses the part though, slapping on some rainbow tie-dye and wearing his typical red shades. He wanders around the stalls, picking up and inspecting a lot of things but not really buying very much of it, chattering to himself and - by eextension - the unsuspecting vendors.]

Y'know, on the one hand, I'm glad this Pride's escaped the clutches of capitalism and isn't one big rainbow commerical. On the other hand, though? I miss free stuff. Is this the trade-off for having no cops?

Yotsuba Park - evening (cw: alcohol)

[Come 4PM Misfire's immediately at the booze, participating in a Pride tradition he knows and loves: getting absolutely smashed. Catch him singing and dancing along to the rest of the night's music (to the best of his ability, which is to say, not very well), but be careful he doesn't try to rope you into joining in.]

Rainbow Walk

[Misfire did not heed the organizers' warning last night and so, this morning, he's hating himself something fierce as he struggles on through the Rainbow Walk, unable to even finish the energy drink he holds shakily in his hand.

Collapsing first to his knees, then to all fours, he gives up in the middle of the street, weakly raising the Bisexual Flag he's wrapped around himself.]

This is it, I'm done for...just leave me here...but somebody...take my flag...

[mnemon]

yotsuba park – day

[ A festival like this isn't really Ryoko's usual scene but after an, uh, illuminating phone call with Shu that was equal parts revealing and deeply embarrassing, she'd figured she may as well take him up on his offer and catch a ride down to the park just to see what things are like. Maybe it'll jog a memory or two – it probably won't. If nothing else, she can chug a sports drink all day and report back to Frillnet about the whole thing.

Ryoko mostly lurks up and down the stalls, politely edging her way in so she can eyeball the wares up for sale before moving on, with the general vibe of a girl who wants to shop but isn't quite sure where to start. A lot of this stuff is a little too bright and bold for her... ]

There's got to be something more subtle, right? . . . Never mind. Stupid question.

[ When the heat gets a little too much for her, she makes her way to one of the stalls that has a bit of shaded seating and finds that, as a bonus, it's serving shaved ice. She gets a whole pile of the stuff, saturated with purple syrup and plops herself down to much through it as she watches the live music play out on stage. There's a ton of familiar faces up there, huh...

Actually, there's a question. To whoever happens to be sitting closest: ] Is it just me or is basically everyone from the DU here?

Victoria | Open

[tokencanadian]

[Yotsuba park]

Victoria knows about Pride. Of course she does. And, to no one else's knowledge, she's been wanting to participate in one for quite some time. Of course, she had to let a few certain folk know about it. Fortunately, they said it was a great idea! What a way to introduce one of the new shining strikers on the scene!

...Except, there's quite a few people here? She wanted to make a big appearance, but now... Well, Victoria's doing a good job of hiding inside her hoodie as she finds a good spot around the festival to exist. First impressions and all that. Need to think it through, stay calm, and make sure everyone gets to meet the best her that she can be -

Which is about when Victoria trips over a can and stumbles into whoever happens to be in the way.

"Ack! I'm... sorry!"

[Koubai]

Oh, but this was far more her speed.

Others may have shirked the organizers reminders, but not Victoria. She was up, bright and early - not even for the march itself, but her own jog that meets up with the parade partways through. Don't worry, she's got pride clothes on, a bisexual-colored tank top, nevermind the Arkwire logo, it's pretty small for merch.

Are you struggling? Collapsed on the ground in a puddle of your own sweat and tears? This redhead's got a water bottle with your name on it. (Not really, because that'd be weird).

"Don't worry! Only a little more ways to go."

Jeanne "Alter" d'Arc | Open | Uh, a bunch of casual blasphemy I guess

[howlmyrage]

Yotsuba Park, A Stall

[ Alter here has set up a little stall selling her art, most prominently her variant of the PriDE MOnth shirt because she thinks it's very funny. Other pieces of art include a draconic beast rising out of the sea with seven heads, each one a different colour of the rainbow.

The banner at the top of the stall reads "GESPENST KETZER", apparently the name of her circle. Below it reads "Be Gay, Do Crimes, Piss Off A Priest". Below that is a list of commission prices. For what it's worth she's quite good, if a little pointlessly edgy in her subject matter. ]

Shu Amiguchi

[breezyplayboy]

Yotsuba park

[Ah yes, a staple at every Pride- the "token straight ally" who is actually just a queer who doesn't know it yet.]

[He bought himself a t shirt with the ally flag as a heart with a bow on it and is wearing that over the short sleeved collared shirt he came in, so the collar is sticking out. He's wearing lightweight, but long pants and running shoes, and is wandering around with a cold milk tea and sunglasses, admiring the crafts.]

Woahh, that's all handmade? Awesome!

[He can also be found sitting under some shade near to the stage, listening to music and eating some fried street food.]

Koubai

[Shu meant to just drop Ryoko off, grab a bottled drink, and drive over to the plaza to wait for the end of the march. His plans are absolutely waylaid when someone stops him on his way back to his bike.]

Oh, no, I'm just someone's ride, I didn't come to march-

[traceofeffort]

[A | follow your rainbow | Yotsuba Park, day and early evening]
[On the one hand, Lisa knows a bunch of people who are planning to be at the park today, not least of which is Ai, who's having a show. On the other... she feels a little out of place. She wants to be here to support her friends, which has brought her out with a (store-bought this time) light rainbow scarf, but she also has a kind of lost expression. It would reassure her, internally at least, if she could at least figure out somewhere to start with her own sexuality, but all she feels is a vague nervousness and emotional exhaustion whenever she considers the topic. She'll cross that bridge when she gets to it, but for now, she's deflecting the question when it comes up casually. Mercifully, people seem to recognize she's having a hard time figuring herself out and aren't giving her grief.

Instead, she's roaming the festival, shopping and picking up cute trinkets and trying to broaden her knowledge and horizons. Any table with pins and patches will see her coming by at least once, and her tote feels almost unnaturally heavy by early evening, having bought a little of everything both as crafting supplies and in case she decides what she is, or at least wants to be. The couple of pins she's found leaning more toward mental health, on the other hand, go immediately onto the handles of her bag. The cheery atmosphere helps, too, and she feels reassured by the energy of the groups roaming the park. She makes a point of grabbing a drink and a snack to take breaks, though, and she definitely parks herself near the stage for at least some of the performances. But at least once, she's sitting on a bench in a shady spot, trying to go through the helpful idiot's guide to orientations and gender she'd picked up somewhere and with a visible question mark over her head.] Forget my English exam, I need a study guide for this...

[B | and I would walk 500 miles | Koubai streets]
[The next morning is an event Lisa's a little more used to: the march winding through the streets below her apartment. She's no more certain about why she's out here than she was yesterday, but she needs less of a reason today - the crowd is the reason, and so she's turned up in a T-shirt, shorts, and sunglasses, scarf traded for a bandana tied around her wrist. More importantly, some of these idiots stayed out drinking all night, as they do, so her trusty tote bag is over her shoulder once again, this time lined with a plastic bag and filled with a dozen bottles of water and a bunch of ice. Lisa doesn't make a great guardian angel, but she does her best when the need arises.] Hey, you look like you could use a pick-me-up. Doing okay?

[The realization at the far end that they're going to end up parked at the DU building is a bit of a harsh reminder, but she shakes the feeling off - it's fine, that's not (necessarily) what she's here for today. She just takes it easy, chugs a bottle of water herself, and tries to sink into the feeling of camaraderie as best she can. She's trying to keep the unease out of her expression, but the way she sits down, leans back on her arms, and closes her eyes either says she's exhausted from the walk or drained for another reason.]