There is a ton of confusion this year about Santa. Mostly due to the fact that we have so freakin' many of them in Seattle. I for one believe part of what makes Santa special is the fact that it doesn't happen very often. I also like traveling to other nearby cities to participate in their events. In fact in 2004 Portland, Vancouver and Seattle banded together to form a "Tri-Santacon" ... I know Rob the Wop deserves credit for this, but as this was my first year doing Santa, I unfortunately don't know who else was involved in planning it. That's how Santa is supposed to be... the people figuring out the route, setting up entertainment, events and fuckery are supposed to stay behind the scenes and deliver to you one of the most rowdy, debaucherous, insane events we can muster.
Santa also has traditions that we try to remind people of. First and foremost are the four fucks. But close behind that we are not on a pub crawl. We're SANTA. SANTA is in charge. We try and push boundaries every year, with style of course! Sometimes we get to do very special things like lead a marching band through a Fred Meyer. When Facebook entered the mix, we got lots of new Santas which is FANTASTIC! But with all these new Santas, we need to make sure the right attitude is conveyed. The Four Fucks keep us out of jail, but all the rest are what keeps Santacon & Santarchy alive.
Cities have had more than one event, and they can be sustained and still hold that special magic that is Santa, but usually this involves picking different areas of town or different purposes. In Portland they do a central Portland and a NoPDXAntiCon. Here in Seattle starting last year we decided to run 2 events, a small Santa "Seattle Santacon" and a big Santa... "Seattle Santarchy". Santacon will visit neighborhoods in Seattle we just can't take the big group to, and thus there will be no overlap.
Santa is open to everyone who wants to get involved. Over the years the organizers will change, but there is a core group of people who have invested time in keeping this ball rolling year after year. Well this year one guy wants to take the Santacon name, do his own thing, forget the traditions that have built over the years, even copying the text we write in our event listing but "cleansing" it so it doesn't say FUCK and moving the words around a little bit. His event will be in the same general area as ours a week before (the 8th), so it really offers no value that we can see. Anyway a few of us who work on this event are fairly put off by this, but whatever Santa you choose we encourage you to have a fun Santa this year, remember the FOUR FUCKS, and if you want to get involved with us this year or next we'd love to have you.
HO!
Santa also has traditions that we try to remind people of. First and foremost are the four fucks. But close behind that we are not on a pub crawl. We're SANTA. SANTA is in charge. We try and push boundaries every year, with style of course! Sometimes we get to do very special things like lead a marching band through a Fred Meyer. When Facebook entered the mix, we got lots of new Santas which is FANTASTIC! But with all these new Santas, we need to make sure the right attitude is conveyed. The Four Fucks keep us out of jail, but all the rest are what keeps Santacon & Santarchy alive.
Cities have had more than one event, and they can be sustained and still hold that special magic that is Santa, but usually this involves picking different areas of town or different purposes. In Portland they do a central Portland and a NoPDXAntiCon. Here in Seattle starting last year we decided to run 2 events, a small Santa "Seattle Santacon" and a big Santa... "Seattle Santarchy". Santacon will visit neighborhoods in Seattle we just can't take the big group to, and thus there will be no overlap.
Santa is open to everyone who wants to get involved. Over the years the organizers will change, but there is a core group of people who have invested time in keeping this ball rolling year after year. Well this year one guy wants to take the Santacon name, do his own thing, forget the traditions that have built over the years, even copying the text we write in our event listing but "cleansing" it so it doesn't say FUCK and moving the words around a little bit. His event will be in the same general area as ours a week before (the 8th), so it really offers no value that we can see. Anyway a few of us who work on this event are fairly put off by this, but whatever Santa you choose we encourage you to have a fun Santa this year, remember the FOUR FUCKS, and if you want to get involved with us this year or next we'd love to have you.
HO!
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