Occidental puts April Fools on parade

Saturday was the day to play the fool in Occidental in the annual first day of April parade that embraces silliness and fun for its own sake and as an antidote to worldly woes and cares.

The 12th annual Occidental Fools Parade, an excuse for merriment and frolic, lurched through downtown - all four blocks of the west Sonoma County hamlet - led by the zany Hubbub Club band and trailed by clowns, court jesters, fairies and others in creative costumes that defied description.

“It’s definitely west county, a place to see lots of people you know and a place to let it out and go crazy,” said Kris Spangler of Sebastopol, who has been to several previous parades.

The archetypal fool, she said, brings a message, including “it’s OK to be yourself. … You don’t have to follow sheep. We need that now to celebrate difference and diversity.”

Despite the parade’s theme of silliness and lightheartedness, there were some oblique political statements, including one man dressed as a space alien with a sign that read, “please don’t deport me.”

And parade organizer Steve Fowler said there are more fools than ever these days.

“There’s one in the White House. I consider him one of the most foolish people on the planet,” he said.

But Fowler said more levity is needed in an anxious world.

“Factions are battling between themselves on the street, the world is full of war. We need a day off,” he said.

The 200 or so participants ambled up and down the parking lots along Bohemian Highway in a loose assemblage that some compared to a Mardi Gras parade, with dancing and starts and stops at whim, sometimes to chat with onlookers.

“There’s no rules. It goes around and around as much as anyone wants,” said Vesta Copestakes, a Forestville resident and publisher of the Sonoma County Gazette.

“It feels like a silly event. It gets you away from everyday life,” said Kim Humphreys, a Sebastopol artist who was in the parade with her daughter, Maya, 16, costumed as “Freedom,” and her fellow drama student, Kat Motley, 15, dressed as “Fabulous.”

Eyeing the parade, former Sebastopol Mayor Lynn Hamilton said “it’s a representation of the eclectic group of people that lives in Sonoma County.”

Artists are especially drawn to the parade, including Chris Reyes, who was inside a piece of “mobile art,” that appeared to be part crab, part beast, and definitely otherworldly. His quadruped movement was made possible using a combination of stilts and crutches, said his wife, Lisa Reyes.

Fowler, president of the board of the Occidental Center for the Arts, which organizes the event, considers the parade “a performance art piece, spontaneously created by people.”

“It’s peculiarly wonderful, flagrantly foolish,” said Fowler, who wielded a faux gold and jewel-bedecked plumber’s helper, the official scepter of the “kingdom of fools.”

Although it’s been called the April Fools Parade since 2005, the event has roots that go back to 1976 when a group of area residents gathered for an April Fool’s “Silly Day” that was staged annually for several years.

“It was my original idea as a benefit for the PTA, but it never quite got to that point,” said Ramon Sender, who was one of the original residents of the back-to-land west county hippie communes of Morning Star and Wheeler Ranch.

He said in those early events, children would dress up as Keystone Cops giving a “silly ticket” to anyone in Occidental who didn’t laugh at their joke.

The offender had a chance to have the fine suspended by taking the case to a “judge” and getting the magistrate to laugh.

Sender, who lives in San Francisco, was in full clown regalia and face paint as “Emperor Zero (abdicated)” on Saturday, urging his subjects to be happy and celebrate.

He handed out a note from “His Imperial Nothingness” stating “thou art hereby authorized to jump in mud puddles, talk with animals, bugs, birds, trees, rocks, elves and sprites and channel healing smiles in all six directions.”

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 707-521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@clarkmas