What to Know
- Queen Tryouts for the Pasadena Doo Dah Parade
- Sunday, Oct. 27
- 4 p.m. tryouts (bar opens at 2:30 p.m.)
- Old Towne Pub (entry is at 34 Holly Street in Old Pasadena)
- The Doo Dah Parade struts through the heart of Old Pasadena on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 11 a.m. (give or take)
Donning a dazzling crown, and possibly a mermaid's tale, and a gown made of paper flowers and/or soda cans and/or coffee filters?
Then joining a fantasy-filled procession, all to regally wave at admiring bystanders?
It's the vivacious vision shared by a spunky subset of Doo Dah Parade devotees, a tightknit band of creative and plucky people who adore Pasadena's "Other Parade."
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You certainly know the happening that the "Other Parade" is in reference to, the one that florally blooms on New Year's Day.
The Doo Dah, on the other hand, is the wonderfully weird whimsy that pops up, most years, on a Sunday, something the Rose Parade does not do.
But before the Doo Dah Parade boisterously begins, which it shall do on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 11 in the morning, give or take 15 or 20 minutes?
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A queen, a fantastical figurehead possessing a sense of elegant outlandishness, must be duly crowned.
That not-so-solemn ceremony will pompily take place at Old Towne Pub in Pasadena on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 27. (No, "pompily" isn't exactly a real word, but then the Doo Dah Parade is very much about embracing the unreal.)
"Individuals of every gender, shape, age, and persuasion" are invited to "test their mettle" at the rollicking event, an annual audition that plays lively and loose with the usual tryout rules.
Stop by with your banjo, your roller skates, or both: Offbeat talents will be fabulously and flagrantly on display during the ebullient afternoon affair, which includes dancing, music, and general frivolity.
Two new positions are opening in 2024, the Royal Night and the Royal Light; "(t)his leaves room for more family drama, while also acknowledging that 'life is not always 'a bed of roses,'" share the organizers.
Several former queens will be in attendance, and, as always, pretty much everyone will be in costume, or sporting face glitter, or wearing a strange hat, or, quite possibly, all of the above.
If you do make a go for the quirkiest crown around, you'll have five festive minutes to show off.
And you should take the spirit of showing off to heart: The bigger and bolder you get, the more likely you'll be queen of the famous scene on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
