JOCKSTRAP CENTRAL PRIDE TORONTO 2009

I know this isn’t quite as exciting as practically naked men in jockstraps, but for those who couldn’t make it to Toronto Pride, and more specifically, to our Jockstrap Central booth on Church St during June 27th and 28th, then here’s some random photos. Keep in mind, most of these were taken either early or late in the day, and don’t give a true idea of the crowds. It’s hard to just how many people were there, but most people say numbers are now being 500,000 and a million. The event covers 22 city blocks and is completely endorsed by the city and government (both provincially and federally.) It’s pretty amazing to see Police, RCMP (mounties), OPP participating all day long handing out beads and temporary tattoo and walking in the parade. Politicians, TTC (public transit), Via Rail, Banks, Pepsi, Ambulance, and even the Canadian military are all involved. It truly is a celebration of diversity.

Anyway, here’s the photos (click them to view gallery):

Early Saturday Morning on Day 1:

Adrian and myself (John) handing out postcards and chatting to people (See, I do wear jockstraps!)

Me setting up one of our walls of jockstraps:

Adrian and I checking out our outer wall:

A clothes line of Pride Jocks:

Inside the booth. Wide angle lenses aren’t flattering to Adrian.

Our friends Christa and Joe who helped us all weekend (thank god!)

Inside the booth selling jockstraps:

Getting busy on day two:

Buying jockstraps at night, Christa and Joe man the back of the booth:

Our fearless photographer, Norman Hatton, sacrificed himself to the huge pool of water that collected in one of the tarps Sunday morning. The good news is he dispersed the water, the bad news, it got dispersed all over himself.

The famous Mr. Limpy. We bought this prop to demonstrate our suspensory jocks. Who knew it would be the center of attention throughout the event as guys and girls, of every age and nationality posed and had their photos taken with him. Some people pay entertainers hundreds of dollars to stand outside their booths to draw attention when all you have to do is buy a $13.95 flaccid dildo from Priape.

Four very tired people after a full-on weekend. The hardest thing is you can’t leave your booth up over night, so we had to set up Saturday morning at 8:00am, then tear it all down and load it into the truck at 10:00pm that evening. Then on Sunday, you have to do it all again. At least this year we had lots of help with Christa, Joe, and Norman.

Next is Church Street Fetish fair on August 16th. Hope to see you there!