The grape pick-up
When grapes go bed...
Due to an unforeseen series of events, I had the opportunity to play a bunch of grapes for this year's Earth Day festival. Of all the pictures taken of me in this costume, I like this one the most. The look on that woman's face is perfect.
Every year, Santa Barbara puts on an amazing Earth Day festival. For the last 5 years, I've staffed the Edible Santa Barbara booth because the magazine is published by good friends and neighbors, and the other folks who staff it are wonderful to be with. As we were setting up this year, one of the people who organize the event and knows that I'm a cosplayer, mentioned that one of the other booths had a grape costume this year. I asked her to introduce me, but when I got to the booth they lamented that their guy who was suppose to wear the costume had to back out.
My job was to let folks know about the Vintage 2014 multimedia documentary on local wine production.
Well, I volunteered to fill in (begged them may be more accurate). At first, I think they were just happy to have someone be in the suit, but it didn't take long to realize they had more than they could ask for. When I cosplay a bunch of grapes, no one is safe.
I wasn't normally in the glamour photos, but several people requested that I join them.
Vintage2014 is a multimedia documentary about making wine in the local area. They put up a booth to promote their work, and inside was a backdrop for taking pictures. They offered to take free glamour photos of anyone who came by.
I had a great time interacting with the crowd, and the kids loved it - like the one you can see on the right side of the photo about to whack me with his balloon sword.
My job was to bring people to the booth. And once we got going, the booth had a continuous line of people asking about the project and getting their pictures taken. I had a great time interacting with the festival attendees as well as the folks staffing the other booths.
I realize that there's nothing else like this at the festival, and it's the size of two city blocks. So few people get a chance to interact with a cosplayer or mascot (I'm not sure how to categorize this) that they just went wild when they came across me. And I had a great time being big and bold. I need to make one of these costumes for myself.
The other nice thing that came out of this experience is that friends finally got a chance to see what I can do in a costume. Now the Edible Santa Barbara folks want to come up with a costume that I can wear next year. And I'll bet they're not the only ones. I've made it clear to the organizers that if they can come up with a concept, I'll make and wear the costume.