On Saturday, Annie and I attended the first annual Portland Pirate Festival at Cathedral Park under the St. John’s Bridge, which was pretty cool. There was lots of pirate-themed music, including Captain Bogg & Salty, pirate-themed food, including Salvador Molly’s, and pirate-themed events, including a gunpowder battle between the Brotherhood of Oceanic Mercenaries (B.O.O.M.) and the King’s Navy. I’ve posted a photo set on my flickr account.
This being the first year the event was put on, it was pretty impressive. My only complaints are that there were only a couple places to get food and drinks (maybe open it to non-pirate-themed booths next year), and the gunpowder battles were shockingly loud, even when standing on the opposite side of the park. There were frightened, crying children all over, and lots of parents covering their kid’s ears. I can’t imagine how to make a gunpowder battle quieter, though, so maybe this is just nitpicking. It was also very difficult to see the battle (in fact, I didn’t) because the ground is a very gentle slope out to the water, so only the people in the front few rows could see anything. From further back, all you could see was smoke.
Still, overall it was really cool, and it was great to see how much the community got into it. I would guess that maybe a quarter of the people there came in costume, both kids and adults, and the announcers and music really helped to set the mood.
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