glow

The city of Santa Monica let go of all their many beach and pier rules for 12 beloved hours with an incredible GLOW festival - the first time in history that the Santa Monica pier has been open all night long. How could I not be a part of this? When we finally found parking and walked down to the pier, it was about 2:00am. Overall the art installations were pretty cool, but the amount of people at this festival was astonishing!

"At any given time, up to 75,000 people could be found on the Santa Monica Pier and the surrounding beach and park, all entranced by the exciting range of artworks and performances. When a new wave of Glow seekers arrived after 2:00 am, the Santa Monica Pier finally reached capacity... Public safety officials then limited access to the Pier for a period of time, the music stage was closed, and the popular work by Usman Haque north of the Pier was briefly shut down." —from the glow website

With as many people that were there, I was pleasantly shocked to run in to at least 10 people I knew there--some I haven't seen in 3+ years, some from Orange County, from work... it was insane and so much fun. I think everyone and their dog was at this thing. (Yes, I did use that cliché, get over it.) :)

Kami and Rustin and I entertained ourselves with the 'cosmic' array of crazy people. I shouldn't have been so surprised with just how many weirdo's there were... we were at the Santa Monica Pier for heaven's sake. Nonetheless, it was still amusing to see a glowing mermaid, a mid-70s hairy-sweaty-shirtless-overweight man-on-crack (I think) dancing to his iPod while smoking in the middle of a very very crowded sea of people walking down the pier. This guy even had a crowd forming around him--including an officer who couldn't do much but stare--just like the rest of us. Hey, almost everything is humorous after midnight... and it just got better past 3:00am!

I hope you enjoy the pics... we were inspired to create our own "glowing selves". Kami and I even got a picture with my new boyfriend. He's hot, eh? Thanks Santa Monica!!! (Next time--make sure more restaurants and shops stay open near 3rd street--boy did they miss out on some major dough!)