Posts Tagged ‘daytona beach’

Today I attended Ratha Yatra (Festival of Chariots) on Daytona Beach, the first time this ancient ceremony has been held here. The idea is that it simulates a trip made by Jagannath, Lord of the Universe (also called Krishna), while on vacation to the countryside to his aunt's home. Ratha Yatra has been celebrated for thousands of years in the Indian holy city Jagannathapuri and is probably the oldest and largest religious ceremony around.

We saw hundreds of devotees singing, chanting, drumming, and pulling a brightly-colored chariot covered in flowers, food and red and yellow cloth, bearing the effigy of the Lord for all to see. They were to pull the chariot 2 1/2 miles down the beach to Sun Splash Park, where a feast awaited.

And they would have too, except for one slight, 1,000-foot problem: the Daytona Beach Pier.

Pics and more details are in my Flickr set here. While I'm sure the organizers were frustrated, no one yelled, festivities continued anyway and the celebration went on. Here's the beginning of the festival which explains it much better than I did, shot by news-journalonline.com's Ron Hurtibise:

The special events season is upon us again, and you know what that means.

Time to study the schedules, make your traffic flow chart, get your escape routes planned, and get all your supplies in before towering waves of tourists break over the city and flood the hotels.

The ending of winter and the beginning of spring heralds a seasonal visit upon our lands, not unlike a plague of locusts, if locusts liked overpriced T-shirts and humorous beer can cozies. The wise resident prepares for this touristial downpour so that he can hold out until April without suffering more than a few broken windows and some tree damage.

The different events require different measures, but for now we'll talk about Speed Weeks.

Forecasters from the Florida Tourism Bureau are predicting between six and nine named races this year, with smaller speed tests and qualifying racing expected throughout the season. These races bring with them dangerously high levels of ear-splitting sound, a rise in local retail prices, and an increased amount of treacherous souvenir shops to ensnare the unwary. Approaching races can easily be detected by the sudden proliferation of Winnebagos drawn to the area by powerful migrational instincts that scientists are only now beginning to investigate.

There are two ways to survive Speed Weeks: hide or flee. Hiding is simply a matter of hoarding everything you need to survive until the races are over and you can emerge from your home, relieved, unwashed, and ready to contact your insurance agent. Be sure to lay in a good supply of batteries and bleach.

Take the time to learn the back roads and side streets. In case of medical emergency or a good sale on Cokes, it is much faster to drive through 75 miles of twisting urban neighborhoods — even if you have to leave the county — than it is to cross Ridgewood.

Residents with jobs outside the home should plan on adding four or five hours of drive time to their commute, and anyone working on International Speedway Boulevard should plan to just stay there until Feb. 17 or until rescue workers can get them out, whichever comes first.

No matter how dire the situation, never leave your house within three hours of a race letting out. The other drivers will still be in a NASCAR-induced fugue state and will think nothing of tapping you into the wall at the tri-oval so they can get ahead of you at the light.

Keep your television tuned to local news, ESPN, or this Web site to stay abreast of any schedule changes.

Turn off propane tanks. Rampant, uncontrollable barbecuing is a constant danger during Speed Weeks.

Designate a safe room in your house to run to during peak times, such as when visiting guests reach a crucial point in their debate over the points system and gunfire is exchanged.

Should you decide to flee there should be relatively clear sailing until the Rolex 24 lets out on Sunday afternoon. After that point, you run the risk of getting caught in the unforgiving loop of about a billion traffic cones and barricades that will lead you around the city six times before rerouting you to Gainesville. Some of the classic cars often seen on the streets of Daytona Beach today are actually lost race fans, still doggedly trying to get home after watching Richard Petty win the 500.

Admittedly this is a great improvement over traffic plans from decades past, when police officers would use enormous high-pressure hoses to flood race traffic off the streets entirely and out into the ocean after every race.

But don't waste your money buying plywood for your windows. You'll need that for Bike Week.

Welcome to Spring Break in sunny Daytona Beach, Florida, the World's Most Respectful Beach! Every year countless thousands of college students escape their scholastic drudgery to come bask in the sun, enjoy each other's completely dressed company, and contemplate the unassailable dignity of each and every special, individual human being.

At least that's what the naked guys on the balcony said they were doing.

OK, maybe in Spring Breaks of the past there might have been unsubstantiated rumors of slightly risque goings-on — coed dancing, teens watching motel HBO without parental supervision, the accidental ingestion of beer — but we'd like to assure the vacationing families of America that your children are safe here, that we are wholesome and good, and your money is welcome. Towards that end, the people in charge of the annual beach party have spared no expense in coming up with exciting new activities to keep our nation's Spring-Breaking future happy, healthy, and legally sober. Check it out!

Beer-Bagging Contests — Attractive young men and women take the stage with six-packs of beer and a stack of grocery bags to demonstrate the mad skills they'll need to survive after their grade point averages drop below 3.0.

Belly-Busting Competition — Don't miss the thrills, spills, and painful-to-watch antics as hundreds of people gather 'round the pool deck to cheer on their foolhardy friends who have chosen these two fun-filled weeks to go on Atkins. Ooh, that's gotta hurt!

Blessed for Beads — Hot babes are on the sand, young and healthy guys are cruising by with handfuls of beads, and you know what that means! That's right, Bible verses! Just toss a string of beads at one of these lovely ladies to receive an exciting glimpse of a personally relevant line from scripture. Boo-yah!

Pet T-shirt Competition — Saucy teens compete to show off their playful, bouncing pet T-shirts. Who will win? The adorable "kittens in the laundry basket" tank top? The sassy "I Heart My Canary" sweatshirt? C'mon pet lovers, let the puppies breathe!

Moral Wrestling — After filling an inflatable pool with baby oil in front of hundreds of screaming fans, contestants will strip down to jeans and polo shirts and, right in front of everybody, debate the effects of moral relativism on the mores of the 21st century urban American. The winner gets to distribute the unused baby oil to the homeless. You won't believe your eyes!

Bikini Company Contest — It's a no-holds-barred slugfest as these exciting, sexy women prance around the stage and battle each other to see who can manage the most successful swimwear business in today's corporate environment. Will Trixie from NYU win by working the crowd into a frenzy with her innovative plans for marketplace positioning? Or will University of Kentucky's "Tanline" LaRue shock everyone and steal the show by whipping out her customer and supplier focus teams? Better get in close, guys, the stock offerings are gonna fly!

It's All About Respect, Stupid — Jump into the city's hot new promotion that encourages students to take pride in themselves, to respect each other as thinking, feeling human beings worthy of consideration and dignity, and to help find the "Respect" signs that were stolen during the last promotion.

Plus there's moderately raucous music by Paul Anka and Deborah Gibson, booths and games at the Readers Digest Expo, nightly "All You Can Think" hours at City Island Library, and plenty of visits from Daytona Beach mascot, Abby the Abstinence-Only Squirrel.

Spring Break 2004! It just doesn't get any duller than this. Tell your friends!

Poor, poor, Daytona Beach. Special events are bleeding us dry, running off other tourists, bringing in tons of money that leaves just as quickly, annoying the sea oats out of the locals, trashing our reputation, stealing our daughters, rustling our cattle, and raising our cholesterol. Is there nothing that can be done?

Every year Speed Weeks costs us thousands of dollars for the increased traffic management. Every year Bike Weeks suck up their own thousands for the imported policemen. Every year Spring Break grabs their share for trashed hotel rooms and street cleanup. And every year Black College Reunion charges us for all of that, all over again.

We can't eliminate these events entirely. Daytona Beach does benefit economically, and they do get us mentioned in the worldwide press, which is always nice (as long as the stories don't use the words 'debacle,' 'indictment,' or 'laughingstock'). The answer is to keep the good stuff while reducing the amount of hassle and money these events cost us, and this is actually quite simple.

Schedule them all for the same week.

Do you see the elegant simplicity of this? One week of hell out of 52 has got to be better than spreading them out over the entire spring season, and just look at the advantages:

– The extra policemen, medical personnel, cleanup crews, drug dealers and prostitutes imported week after week to deal with the increased populace now only have to come in once, a clear savings.

– There will be very little crossover. Aside from attendees with multiple interests, for the most part you'll have race fans on International Speedway Boulevard and in the steak houses, Spring Breakers on the beach and in the clubs, BCR visitors on A1A and on the sidewalks, and bikers on Main Street and in the emergency room. Residents can hide in Ormond-by-the-Sea until it's safe to return.

– Police and rescue personnel will be able to double and triple up on emergency calls, the same way that busy pizza delivery people take several orders on the same run.

– Once the noise hits a certain level it can't get any louder to the human ear, probably.

– Some types of overlap might be encouraged. Race fans might appreciate seeing the Winston Cup cars idle slowly down A1A for all to see, and I for one would pay to see 30 tricked-out BCR-bound custom cars whipping around Turn 3 at the Speedway, flinging neon undercarriages and airbrushed hoods into the stands. I would, however, draw the line at race fan cole slaw wrestling.

– The annual T-shirts will be really interesting.

– A crowded city is a safer city. No one will be able to move fast enough for a moving violation or traffic accident. Spring Breakers falling from balconies will land on a soft bed of NASCAR fans. It won't matter if bikers wear helmets or not since they'll be shoulder-to-shoulder anyway so they can't fall over. A disgruntled BCR attendee or Earnhardt enthusiast will be limited to shooting the six people immediately around him (although self-inflicted gunshot wounds may skyrocket).

– The combined concerts will be show business magic. I'm thinking Chingy and Faith Hill, Matchbox 20 and Lil' Kim (featuring 50 Cent), maybe Beyonce and Kelly Clarkson duetting their hearts out onstage with Brooks and Dunn.

In fact, why stop with the spring events? Let's reschedule all of them and be done with it.

Cheerleading competitions. The LPGA tournament. Surfing competitions. The Garden Show. The Florida International Festival. The Turkey Run. The Children's Expo. Arts shows, reggae festivals, major concerts, everything, even Biketoberfest.

Imagine the savings to the community! Buying in bulk is always cheaper, and there's really no sense in plunging out the same gutters five weeks in a row. In fact, the only place where we'd see a problem in dwindling resources would be in the accommodations needed to house all of our simultaneous visitors, but that's where the real beauty of my plan comes in.

Time-sharing.

If all of the special events were scheduled for the same week, a significant percentage of Volusia County residents would pick that week to be elsewhere — I certainly would — and why not make some money at the same time? Rent your house out to a biker, race fan or college student, and when you come back, relaxed and refreshed, the whole community can spend a week working together to repair each other's drywall and replumb each other's houses.

We could even make a festival out of it, like a citywide barn-raising. Parties, dancing, fireworks, singing, bands, the whole works. A whole week of bonding and sharing as we work together to make our city nice again for the people who live here all year.

Locals only, please.