Bloomer Parade

Staging begins at 6:15 p.m. near 5th & Main in the park behind City Hall and steps off at  6:30 p.m.

Parade route begins on Thursday, July 19 at 6:30 in the Downtown Historic District at the corner of 5th and Main and proceeds east on Main Street and ends at the entrance to Bohemia City at Coiner Park.

Parade goers are invited to the BMD Festival's Miners' Steak & Beans fundraising dinner following the parade. (Click here for details)

WHERE TO GET BLOOMERS: Locally, bloomers are available for purchase in the Historic Downtown District at Victoriana on the corner of 6th and Main and at the Gold Mining Museum on the corner of 8th and Main.

Teatime Learning Cafe is organizing bloomer making parties on Wednesday, July 11 from 6-9 p.m. and on Saturday, July 14 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost $10 plus material. Call Angela at 541.767.0715 for additional details.

The Bloomer Parade is the signature kick-off event of the four-day BMD Festival. It's purpose is for women of all ages to celebrate the invention of pants for women. Imagine how uncomfortable and awkward it was wearing hoop skirts and yards of fabric to go motoring or cycling, play sports, or do gardening and other daily chores. Add to that misery, a federal law which prohibited women from fully engaging in the country’s public policy making process by denying them the right to vote.It’s hard to imagine in this modern era, where individuals’ creative expression rules current fashion, that just over a century ago it was socially taboo for Victorian era women to wear pants.

No wonder women formed the Rational Dress Society in 1881 and championed the need for practical fashions. Then in 1920, after years of public protests from coast to coast, American women were finally given the right to vote.

According to Bloomer Parade Coordinator Lorraine Eriksen the event provides females of all ages an opportunity to dress up in Victorian-era costumes and bloomers and participate in this year’s parade.

Photo courtesy of Cindy Weeldreyer Photography

Video courtesy of Faith Wellman and the LCC-CG 2009 Video Production class