‘It’s a way for everyone to connect.’ Participants say 2024 Procession was full of fun, joy
After a five-year hiatus, the Procession of the Species returned to downtown Olympia, drawing thousands of people to the city’s core, despite rain.
The event took place alongside Olympia Arts Walk, where 100 downtown businesses opened their spaces up to artists and other local vendors. Some spaces were entirely transformed into galleries featuring several different artists.
Olympia Police Lt. Paul Lower said officers with the Olympia Police Department were out helping with traffic control amid the large crowds. A number of downtown roads were closed to cars, but the day went smoothly on their end.
Outside of Ember Goods was a man throat singing while bubbles filled the street. Visual Artist Taylor Clinton pulled people into the Timberland Bank with the promise of original digital art.
And at the corner of Cherry Street and Legion Way, people celebrating the four elements — water, fire, air and earth — began wending their way through downtown. Hundreds of volunteers dressed up as flora and fauna and displayed handmade sculptures large and small depicting life from the very depths of the sea to the sun above.
Carol Johnson Riley attended the first Procession of the Species in 1995, and she’s been participating for 20 years through Samba Olywa, a community percussion and dance group. On Saturday, Riley and her dance group were at the end of the Procession, dressed as a meadow of sunflowers.
Riley said the weekend was awesome despite the unpredictable weather. Rain was in the forecast on Friday night for the luminary procession, she said, but it didn’t ever come. Riley said it was a good omen for Saturday, and they were only hit with light rain during most of the event.
“The streets were not slippery, the crowd was so joyous,” she said. “It was infectious. I don’t even remember it raining, actually, because we were just having way too much fun.”
Riley said countless people in the community pulled together to bring the Procession back after its pandemic-induced hiatus. But Samba Olywa didn’t let the lack of a Procession stop them from dancing. She said the group met outside every week during the pandemic, even during the winter.
She said the dance group’s numbers were hit hard by the pandemic, but now the group is back to the number of members it had before 2020. Riley said they had more than 100 dancers and drummers at this year’s Procession.
This year the dancers and drummers were dressed as sunflowers. Riley said they’re a different species every year, and they rotate through the four elements.
She said members of each group come up with species that would fit the element they’re assigned, and then they vote. Once a species is decided on, then comes designing. Riley said she had a whole team of volunteers helping with prototypes of head, hair and costume styles, shoe and makeup treatments and more. Then each individual had to make their own costume.
Riley said the procession is a combination of all the types of art and artists you can find in Olympia. She said it combines art, music, photography, food and more.
Riley said her favorite piece in the whole parade is the sun. It’s an old favorite, she said, one that’s brought her joy since she first saw the Procession nearly 30 years ago.
She said the rain during this year’s Procession felt like it erased the last four years the city went without the event.
“It just felt like we had it yesterday,” she said. “It felt like 2019 was last year, not five years ago.”
Photos in the rain
Shanna Paxton, an Olympia photographer, has been attending the Procession since 2013. She said she was still recovering Monday from all the running around she did Saturday to capture the parade.
Paxton said she didn’t let the rain deter her from having a good time.
“I’ve been itching to see everyone do their thing and express themselves,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for so long for this to happen that I didn’t care. You know, I had a raincoat. And that’s all I needed.”
Paxton said it was heartbreaking not seeing the Procession for a few years. It’s not like Seattle’s Seafair or like any other parade, she said.
“It’s a very community-loving, joy-sparking event, where if you see someone in the parade, sometimes they might actually come up to you in the crowd and give you a hug,” Paxton said. “It’s a way for everyone to connect.”
Paxton got directly involved last year through a workshop making luminaries, and the workshop kicked off a series for this year’s Procession as well. She got to work alongside the students who made the giant axolotl sculpture, see the person who built the parrot and more.
Paxton said the reason she comes back time and again to photograph the Procession is the joy.
“The only time you don’t see joy on someone’s face is probably because they’re breathing,” she said.
She said she loves photographing the movement in the parade, both from the patrons and the sculptures they built. She said she recognizes the time it took people to make their floats and costumes.
“It’s not just a couple hours that they’ve spent on working on all these projects,” Paxton said. “I feel like they really need to have photos to remember all their hard work, and if I can at least give them a good photo, I feel like I’m contributing to their creativity.”
Riley and Paxton both talked about the funding challenges facing the Procession of the Species. Riley said she wishes that the city had a free community art studio year round, and that the Procession could have a paid professional organizer.
Paxton said it’s really easy to get involved in the procession. People can attend workshops, create costumes and sculptures for the parade, volunteer to help load and unload equipment and more. And people can donate.
Earthbound Productions, the nonprofit responsible for the event, organized a GoFundMe page for this year’s Procession costs. The goal was $10,000, and it was met the Monday after the event.
