Hippie Fair
Every Sunday in Ipanema in Osorio Park (your park, Gus!), the “hippies” sell their crafts. Now, when I pictured this hippie fair, which is a must-see for shopping, I pictured walking from a block away, already able to smell the pot as I approached and seeing a park with a sheen of smoke hovering above a crowd; then there would be drum circles, jugglers, fire twirlers, stoned people dancing, people selling their crafts, food, and what-not, and general Dead-/Phish-show merry mayhem. But, yet again in my life, I was reminded that any time you try to picture anything you haven’t seen yet, your vision will be wrong. This is okay by me…the hippie fair did not disappoint.
The hippie fair is just a bunch of artists who have stands and sell their wares. A couple rows of booths line the outside border of the square park and painters hang their canvasses in the center. Sure, the feeling in the air is light and fairly festive, and maybe I went too late in the day and missed the jugglers, but, other than the long-hairs and occasional pipe sellers, I didn’t feel it was overly hippie. I guess it has its name because the neighborhood was the center of bohemian life back in the hippie heyday of the 60s and 70s. So in Brazil, if you sell paintings, jewelry, ceramics, dresses, instruments, ornate knives, statues, woodwork, keychains, handbags, leather shoes, stuffed animals, decorative coasters, leather briefcases, bathing suits, skirts, belts, leather anything, shirts, pants, hats, etc….you’re a hippie.
