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Rainbow parade girl: Bonny brilliance or twee overload?

Would you rainbow parade for her birthday?

Pay attention, brokesters, because this one falls right on the fault lines of our tolerance levels for all things twee and precious. Jessi Arrington, a Brooklyn graphic designer and self-proclaimed lover of color, held a large rainbow parade for her birthday last year wherein she got a bunch of friends to dress head to toe in solid colors of the rainbow and march around Dumbo. For her birthday this year, Arrington is planning another huge to-do, with the goal of making it the world’s largest rainbow parade (even going so far as to get a rep from RecordSetter to be on hand). So far this sounds like another adorable example of how Brooklyn is one big harmless summer camp/adult Kindergarten class (especially since she talks of cupcakes, streamers, balloons and ponies), right?

Here’s where it gets dicey: there’s a Kickstarter involved, trying to raise $1,500, which goes toward what? “Parade essentials, like hiring an incredible 20-piece marching band, balloons, streamers, bubbles, etc.,” Arrington writes. “For every dollar after that, I’ve got a special surprise up my sleeve to help make the world a more colorful place.”

Is it fair that we expect something like this to have some sort of charity purpose to it? Or can things just be cute and fun for cute fun’s sake? The parade is on April 28 and will go over the Brooklyn Bridge so, uh, if this isn’t your cup of tea, you should stay even farther away from the bridge than you normally do on a Saturday.

What say you? Let it rip, brokesters.

[Via SwissMiss]

12 Comments

    • can one person possibly be more self absorbed and entitled? who throws themselves a birthday party, let alone a parade… and then has the balls to ask their friends to pay for it?

  1. If you wanna be the kind of asshole that throws your money away on this Kickstarter, then you should go right ahead. What I want to know is, why isn’t someone getting people together to remind this pixie stick made human that her birthday, like all days, is just another day closer to her eventual death?

  2. Tim Donnelly

    Gothamist picked this up, and Jen Carlson’s comment is worth sharing here:

    “Sorry for being jaded but our Kickstarter aimed at allowing us to sit alone on a barstool in a dive bar and just be left alone with our whiskey never got funded.”

  3. Melissa Ulto

    hey peeps – why not donate to this campaign – we are trying to raise $60k in 60 days to build 5 volunteer only hostels in the midwest tornado region, which would allow a low cost alternative to volunteers, and set them up with local projects to work on. we have successfully done this in Joplin, where Project195 has had two very successful volunteer only hostels for almost a year now. all money goes directly to funding hostels. no rainbow parties or parades. just straight volunteer housing and work to clean up with our neighbors in the midwest. we also would love volunteers! check out the video and the campaign here: http://www.indiegogo.com/project195 https://vimeo.com/39955219

  4. can one person possibly be more self absorbed and entitled? who throws themselves a birthday party, let alone a parade… and then has the balls to ask their friends to pay for it?

  5. Tuesday

    Frankly, I don’t see a problem. Who else is going to throw you a birthday party? Why not share it with the rest of New York? There are parades all of the time and why not give your money to make a day weird and special? Go participate and stop being a sour grape.

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