GEANT

This, for the neutralino and neutrino physicists... I did not know geant meant giant... Finally a non-Greek name! Oh I'm sure there's some Greek connection... I am sick of all the Greek in Particle Physics... hey but my current experiment has a Spanish name... Yey for all the non-Greeks...

BTW, the food stalls were much fewer than an American equivalent fest, say like the State Fair... Before everyone jumps on me now, I am *not* passing judgment... I am just saying...

People with their dogs...

A lot of people were at the Fringe with their dogs...

Montreal is a very dog friendly city, well except for the landlords... but those we've got in Minneapolis too... :)

People go everywhere with their dogs, and often unleashed...

Unfilthy fun too...

The 3rd pic, of a crystal ball "juggler" does not much justice to his amazig skills really...

and vendors galore...

Some of the clothes, actually all of them, looked pretty cheap and they were cheap... Some of them reeked fresh cheap dye, like that scarf I got from someone at school (back at the U) in support of poor Ecuadorians...

And this one guy just jumped on his stand suddenly and said "everything here for $5, for 15 minutes only" and he had that sale going for like 30 seconds!!! People were not happy, but he did amass quite the crowd....

Drag Race (more)

Also part of the race was to pick people from the audience and dress them in drag within 1 minute... the first pic of two ordinary men from the audience and the second pic the same 2 men 1 minute later - voila!

There were quite a few Americans, specially New Yorkers, and yes they got totally ripped on, for being New Yorkers, for having square Anglo heads, about not knowing French since it is a hard and sophisticated language and what not... but they were good sports, really... I guess you don't go to the Fringe in Montreal if you aren't a good sport....

To steal a line from the Drag Race, "no one left with their dignity intact!"

Drag Race

The best was this racy drag race; at least 50% of their jokes, I understood, because I shared an office with Jeremy...

Is it scary that you can hardly tell that these are actually men!?

The first photo is of the judges, Queen Elizabeth and Lady Di, again two men... You bet they made fun of the English and some comments on Diana going back to the grave and all...

They left no stone unturned like that... Think South Park, but like 100 times more obscene...

Festival St-Ambroise Fringe de Montréal

This is where I was this past weekend.

And if you are a normal person, you take one look at this poster and you won't go there... On the other hand if you've shared an office with my office mates you'll go there... and have fun... lots of it...

Here are the official rules of the Fringe Fest -

CAFF
The Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals are built on four principles.
1) No Artistic Direction. Artists are selected by lottery.
2) No Censorship. Artists have complete freedom to present ANYTHING.
3) Accessibility to artists. Anyone can apply to the lottery.
4)Accessibility to audience. Ticket prices are kept low and 100% of the ticket price is returned to the artists you see on stage.