Despite City Efforts, Do-It-Yourself Community Celebration Set for New Years
Santa Cruz, CA, December 14th, 2013: On New Year’s Eve, as it has for the past nine years, Santa Cruz will again host the DIY New Years Parade, what has become a homespun, family-friendly alternative celebration. The result of nine years of do-it-yourself community organizing, the Last Night DIY Parade, a community-sponsored New Year’s Eve celebration will again hit Santa Cruz streets.
Every New Years since 2004, the DIY celebration has been peaceful, creative, and fun. Community members handle organization, traffic control, and cleanup. However, because of its lack of official sanction, police and civic leaders have opposed the celebration from the beginning.
“This is our way of giving back to the city,” said Elizabeth Burchfield, one of the parade attendees. “We are tired of being afraid. It’s time to organize together.”
According to the Last Night DIY website, the parade is about “celebrating what we as a community can do ourselves, without corporate or city-sponsorship. It is a celebration of both our autonomy and the support we offer each other.”
As with other years, organization is spontaneous and open. There is no single group of organizers. “Everyone who participates makes it happen,” said Burchfield.
More information at the website http://www.lastnightdiy.org/
This year on New Year’s Eve, the DIY Parade will meet at 5pm near the Saturn Cafe parking lot on Pacific Ave and Spruce Street.