B EAST Magazine website

Sep 18, 2009

Never believe the hype? Or, in this case, the hyped-up diss. With the jaw-dropping GDP contraction in the Baltic States making the rest of the world feel better about their economic woes, the global press has been rife with depressing stories from that part of the world, especially Latvia, which is doing even worse than its neighbors. Newspapers talk about stores closing, glum residents, doom and gloom, and a general party pooper vibe. Few mention that Latvia’s capital Riga hosted a flamboyant Blond Parade this May to cheer up the city’s residents. Seems that others are busy lifting the Baltic spirit. The dynamic editors of Jaffa Mag, Latvia’s cool countercultural rag (which comes out even less frequently than B.East!) organised the country’s first Folk Dance Flash Mob in the center of the Old City. As my mate from Amsterdam said when watching the video, ‘Quite a few cuties there.’ Cuties or not, check it out here.

May 31, 2009

We’ve been all over Riga’s full-on blonde parade because it’s just so beasty, hilarious and politically incorrect. Just as Latvia is reeling from its worst economic crisis since independence from the Soviet Union, hundreds of blondes decided to march through downtown in skimpy clothes to cheer up the populace. Well, why not? Perhaps Riga will inspire a string of blond parades across recession-hit Europe. Listen up, Iceland!

Our intrepid B.East photographer, Karen Oganyan was at the march today and captured the zaniness of the event for us. Check out his photos below and his mini-dispatch from the front lines.

hundreds of blonds age 13 – 50 walked through riga’s old town on a gorgeous warm and sunny sunday.
perhaps in hugh hefner’s wildest dreams he couldn’t anticipate so many attractive and sexy girls altogether.
being a part of it was a lot of fun.

This just came in on the wires so thought I’d share it with B.East readers. Blondes are marching through Riga in short skirts this weekend to help dispel the country’s economic blues. Just proves us right when we predicted a year ago that in times of crisis skirts get shorter, and hair longer. When you can’t show off your new Dolce&Gabbana baby doll dress, you might as well turn back to mother nature. Where did you get your body from? I got it from my momma. I got it from my momma.
The Latvian Blond Parade comes on the heels of Kiev’s Femen organising a massive rave in the center of the city last weekend to protest Sexual Tourism. The irony is that even though the girls were protesting seedy sex travelers, they chose to dress in revealing outfits, invited DJ Hell from Munich’s steamy Gigolo (Yes, Gigolo) records down and chose to jump up and down on stage like it was 1999! What’s happening in East Europe? Well, as long as the blondes in the parade look like the ones who went wild at your Riga Beast party last year (see below) we’re not complaining.

Riga – Up to 2,000 blondes are expected to march through the streets of the Latvian capital Riga at the weekend, in a politically- incorrect celebration planned by the Latvian Blondes Association.

The so-called ‘Parade of Blondes’ will enforce a strict dress code for the day with all women marching in fetching red, pink and white outfits.

Ahead of the event, individuals and teams of up to 10 blondes have been registering at a dedicated website which includes a history of Barbie dolls, blonde jokes and information about a campaign to make UNESCO designate May 31 as ‘International Blondes Day.’

As well as the main parade, participants will compete in blonde golf and tennis tournaments, a fashion show and will attend various parties.

Prizes will also be awarded for best blonde policewoman, best blonde TV star and even best blonde journalist.

The mobilisation of blonde power also aims to raise money for Latvian children’s charities.