On March 19th, 2011, a mass of Durhamites gathered on Rigsbee near Motorco and Fullsteam to marry Durham–to pledge to live a conscious, sustainable, community-focused, Durham-loving lifestyle.  I was not at Marry Durham because I was in D.C., visiting some friends.  Luckily, Marry Durham held its one-year anniversary this past Saturday, and I was able to attend.  Since Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day, the anniversary celebration had a green tinge to it, but for those of us think St. Patrick’s Day is dumb (truly, it is the frattiest and bro-iest “holiday” ever) the event thankfully had more of a Durham feeling than a frat-boy Irish feeling.

We arrived a little late, and so missed the parade and the brief vow renewal service.  However, we got there in time to grab a pretzel from Cafe Prost (a new-ish food truck that does good, fresh soft pretzels) to see the klezmer band Freylach Time play at Fullsteam.  Klezmer is the music you associate with traditional Jewish celebrations–Hava nagilah etc.  I was all over that, lord knows I love my people’s music.  They were awesome.  People danced, I danced too!

There was a lot of anti-Amendment 1 protesting going on at the event, which was positive; Amendment 1 is this horrible thing that is maybe happening in North Carolina that not only will write a statement defining marriage as ONLY between a man and a woman into the state constitution, but will also do a bunch of other awful things that you can read about here.   Anyways, I’m all about anti-Amendment 1, but all the lovely people–including this woman and her awesome cake hat–were basically preaching to the choir.  The Marry Durham celebration wasn’t really a place where pro-Amendment 1 people would hang out, I’d love to take the message to them. Regardless, VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 1 FOR REALSIES Y’ALL.

Anyways, enough politics, here are more dancing photos.

A lot of people were dressed up, either in St. Patrick’s Day themed garb or in wedding garb, like the very committed woman above and this awesome lady in her awesome dress and awesome mask.

Fullsteam got a little stuffy after awhile–it has been unseasonably warm here, and there were a lot of people inside.  We headed outside to  get some fresh air and to wander up and down along Rigsbee.

There were crafts for the kids and a large number of food trucks.

And tons of people, as you can see!

And some outdoor music and hula-hooping.

Fullsteam had another band playing after Freylach time, and there was music at Motorco, The Bar, and Surf Club.

This was a lovely way to spend a Saturday: chilling and day drinking with all of kooky, wonderful Durham dancing, to klezmer music, around me.  I’d Marry Durham any time, but this was certainly a lovely day to do it!