What is The Green Hat? And what is this blog for anyway?

The History of the Green Hat:
The Fremont Arts Council (FAC), who sponsors the Fremont Solstice Parade,  is a non-profit organization that survives mainly on donations and membership dues.  The Parade currently costs about $60,000 to produce each year.  Rather than asking for corporate sponsors, or asking for entrance fees for its participants, we go directly to the public and ask them to contribute to keep the parade going.
There are two methods we use to do this:

• We go to local businesses that directly benefit from having the parade on their doorstep, and
• We ask for donations from audience members during the parade.

 The Ensemble that asks for donations is called The Green Hat Ensemble.   The tradition started several years after the parade had been going, when members of the FAC were deliberating on how to pay for rising permit fees, materials and tool costs, and necessities like porta-potties, radios, and barricades, to name a few. One brilliant member, Paul Trebach, suggested "why don't we ask the audience at the parade to contribute?" So in the tradition of "passing the Hat" at public performances of old, the Green Hat Ensemble was born.

In recent years, the Green Hat Ensemble has consisted of about 20 members/volunteers who dress up, (sometimes in a theme, some times not) dance down the street, pass their "hat" on long bamboo poles, and deposit the contributions into a 4' wide Giant Sparkling Green Hat that they roll down the parade route.

What is this Blog for Anyway?
2013 marks the 25th anniversary of the Fremont Solstice Parade, and it promises to be a bigger spectacle than ever before.  To add to the spectacle, and to make the Green Hat more successful than ever, I am making this year's theme "The Green SteamPunk Hat".   We'll be redesigning the collection hats, the sound system, and the Green Hat itself to fit the theme.  We also have a goal of 40-50 volunteers for the ensemble, to ensure we contact as many audience members as possible, while still having enough people to have rests, dance, and generally create a spectacle on the street.  All of this takes time, creativity, and lots of people energy! So, in the next couple of months, I'll be using this blog to keep all of you apprised of how things are coming along.  Feel free to add ideas, volunteer, or post to friends that you think might be interested in helping out.

Hoping to work with a lot of you!