Pushing a musical rubbish bin down a closed George street while tens of thousands cheer, what strange things we do for a living, just another day at the office for Sunny Bins.
The Chinese New Year Parade 2013 had requested the use of a roving Sunny Bin and operator. What started quite straight forward ended up a bit confused with where I was meant to be after the initial rove with the performers on roller blades and stilts.
I came out pushing the bright yellow bin music blazing with two snake costumed performers on roller blades and a stilt walker onto the start of the parade route near Pitt st. The ipod played a loop of the pre prepared snake dance track, I pushed the bass rumbling bin as the performers entertained the crowd who eagerly awaited the main parade.
I did this for a while before a co-ordinator sent me down to meet the other similarly dressed group who were apparently near the corner of George and Goulburn st. It was very surreal pushing the bin past the George Street cinemas as the only thing on the road as the thousands cheered and yelled at my passing as they awaited the parade.
When I got to the corner there were no performers, just barriers behind which were thousands more people all looking at me and cheering. I kept going down the route looking for the other ‘Snake dance’ performance troop who apparently needed my music.
I finally found the other performers at the entertainment centre at the end of the kilometre long parade route, but they finished fairly quickly after I arrived as the opening speeches happened down there.
I rang the co-ordinator and he said go up route as I was needed 1 kilometre back to the start of the route, so I started the long journey back, all this was happening before the floats have left the start point.
The crowd seemed to respond even more enthusiastic to the music bin they’d seen going down the route that was now going up the parade route playing D.J PeeWee Ferris’s ‘Snake Dance’ mix all the way. Now pushing the bin up hill, I strained to keep it moving past the sea of people contained by barriers on either side of the road.
I turned a corner into Goulburn and was suddenly faced the lead float descending on my like a crazed dragon followed by the noisy cacophony of lion dancers and the sea of floats that followed.
It was me and a Sunny Bin heading straight into the dragons/snakes mouth. I quickly took a B-line to the side to let the hungry snake past and made my way up route on the side between the barriers and the parade to play music in the gaps between the floats up at beginning of the parade at Town Hall. It was quite a colourful and dramatic night for Sunny Bins at the Chinese New year parade 2013
