More than 80 Sunshine Orange Crosstreks rolled down Main Street Sunday during a break in the clouds to light up Great Barrington. Organizer Michelle Kaplan says a third parade is now likely unavoidable.
Pictured: Michelle Kaplan, the mind behind the parade. Photo by Josephine Halvorson.
When the Sunshine Orange Subarus turned the corner onto Main Street in Great Barrington on Sunday, the sidewalks were already full. People had brought beach chairs to watch over 80 same-colored cars pass through. They cheered, they waved, and, according to organizer Michelle Kaplan, surprisingly, a bunch of people cried, including herself. Kaplan says the event was bigger and more impactful than she could have imagined, and now, despite her thinking before the event, it has to happen again next year.
"It was a real parade. I couldn't believe it," she says. "When we went downtown, there were so many people lining the streets. They had been waiting. They were hanging out all down Main Street. That to me was just very unexpected."
Kaplan, a DJ and writer who hosts “Mishmash” on WBCR-LP, has spent two years insisting the Sunshine Orange Subaru Crosstrek Parade means nothing. "I've been saying for a while now, this is just its own stupid thing. It has no meaning," she says. "I can't call it stupid anymore. After seeing everyone's reactions and how emotional it felt, I can't call this a stupid little thing anymore."
By Kaplan's count, at least 81 orange Crosstreks took part, up from 14 at the first parade last year. She'd expected more than 100 but a storm on the East Coast kept some out-of-towners home, she says. The forecast for Great Barrington called for a wind advisory, possible thunderstorms, and a 100 percent chance of rain. Then the cars gathered behind the Big Y and the sky cleared. "It was a miracle," Kaplan says. "I don't understand."
The night before, participants sent her photos of orange Subarus filling hotel parking lots around town. "People were saying, 'I've never been to Great Barrington. It's so cute,'" she says. "Everyone was talking about the parade, telling me 'I want to come back.' That was really meaningful to me."
Since Sunday, messages have kept arriving. Kaplan says the same few themes come up: giddiness, childlike wonder, and even tears of joy. "I think any excuse to laugh is welcome," she says. "But everyone had different answers to why it felt so good. For me, I've never felt so connected to the community, and that's what was emotional to me. Everyone showed up, they came outside, they were clapping and cheering. Seeing everyone's smiling faces is the best."
A video she posted of the packed parking lot, filmed from atop a pole, had passed 1.2 million views and roughly 37,500 likes by Monday morning. Kaplan, who describes herself as a behind-the-scenes person, finds that "scary." She'd rather think about the people who wrote to her. "Michelle, I haven't smiled that much in a while," one told her. "This is what we needed, just to come together for something like this." "People said their face hurt yesterday from smiling," Kaplan adds, "and mine did too."
"Last time we spoke, I was like, 'Hell no! I'm not doing this again. This has turned into a part-time job,'" she tells RI. "I accomplished what I wanted, but then after yesterday, it became very clear that it's not possible to not do it again. This thing completely took on a life of its own, and it definitely has to happen again. And I'm surprised that I'm saying this."
The case for a sequel came in fast. "Every single person was like, 'I can't wait for next year,'" she says, and plenty of Subaru owners who wanted to come couldn't make it. A brass band from New York has already reached out about dressing in orange and playing sunshine-related songs. Volunteers showed up Sunday, friends and strangers alike, asking what they could do. Kaplan says she'll need them. "There's no way that I can keep doing this the way that I've been doing it."
The next thing Kaplan programmed is happening this Sunday, October 4, at 7pm, when the Triplex hosts Found Footage Festival Vol. 11. Joe Pickett of The Onion is coming to Great Barrington to provide live commentary over a 90-minute program of VHS oddities that includes two Bigfoot videos and a crafting guru painting a fish's eyeball onto a towel. "There's a similar theme in all the things I'm doing, which is just to laugh together," Kaplan says. "It's going to take you away from your everyday life for an hour and a half, and you just have a good time."
Some tickets are still available. "It's a little more obscure, and the title is confusing to people." She hasn't seen it herself, which she calls "a little ballsy," but she trusts the people behind it. One friend, Steve Browning, chef/owner at No Comply, bought a ticket without knowing what to expect. "He said, 'I don't fully understand what this is going to be, but I can trust that it's going to be good,'" Kaplan says. "I wish that people would just have that attitude about going out all the time.”
The following Monday, October 12, the Triplex screens John Wilson's The History of Concrete, which has sold out. Kaplan says the film has been packing theaters in New York, and she counts Wilson as her favorite film director after John Waters. "He is having such a moment right now," she says. "I'm so happy for him."
Tickets for Found Footage Festival Vol. 11 at thetriplex.org.
