2017 Cone Parade participants, lined up in front of the Aquarian Crystal Gallery in Carytown (Photo courtesy Aquarian Bookshop)
On New Year’s Day, Aquarian Bookshop is hosting the 10th annual Cone Parade in Carytown. No, we’re not talking ice cream or traffic, we’re talking human cones, or, rather, humans dressed as cones. For close to a decade, every New Year’s Day a gathering of people has marched down Cary Street in paper cones that they create themselves.
This quirky and fun event was created by Aquarian Bookshop owner John Oliver. He says the idea for the parade stemmed from one of the workshops he teaches (on topics ranging from meditation to mysticism) and that the event also draws inspiration from the Chinese New Year. When the dragon is spotted during Chinese New Year celebrations, it means good luck for the year to come. Oliver says, “We decided, OK, if you see the cones it means you’ll have prosperity for the new year.”
Oliver says the cone shape is a prominent spiritual symbol, noting the shape of the sun’s spiral through the solar system and the shape of waves of energy.
He recalls, “The first year that we did it, it was kind of cold outside, but we did it and we’ve done it every year since.” Oliver, who normally stays behind the parade march to capture photos, says the first year he went ahead of the parade and would stop in at local businesses to see what people would say about the cones as they marched by. The response was positive.
On average 15 to 20 people participate in the march down the sidewalk of Cary Street. Historically the parade has started from the Aquarian Bookshop, but this year Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market is co-sponsoring the event, and the parade will begin there at noon, travel down to Boulevard and then make its way back to Ellwood Thompson’s.
The Cone Parade marches along Cary Street. (Photo courtesy Aquarian Bookshop)
Over nearly a decade of parades, Oliver says there have been some memorable cone designs including Christmas trees, monkeys carrying bananas, and even one where a participant put on a cone hat and jumped inside a portable ice cream cart where only his head stuck out as the cart was pushed along the sidewalk.
There’s a small prize at the end of the parade for the top three cone costumes. Participants themselves vote for the best, with the only stipulation being that they cannot vote for themselves. Oliver says the prizes range from an item to a small gift certificate.
This is a free event, but registration is required at coneparade.com and is open until the parade starts. Don’t know how to create a cone? There’s a step-by-step tutorial video available on the website, created by one of the parade regulars, Kirk Schroder. Participants are welcome to meet at the Aquarian Bookshop prior to the parade to put their cone costumes together in order to ease difficulties with cone transportation.
“People ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’ and my answer is, ‘Well, if you see the cones on the sidewalk, it means prosperity for the new year and it’s a tradition,’ ” says Oliver. “Mainly it’s just something fun for New Year’s Day.”
