I don't gotta Regatta. July 4th marked my first Regatta experience since 1997 (its 20th anniversary), and to be truthful, it's a borefest for me more than anything. The boats whizz by, nothing ever floats in the Anything That Floats race, the food is overpriced ($5 for Italian Ice?), the portable johns get backed up, the heat wears you down (I've been told I'm unenthusiastic about the Regatta because I'm ' always too cool for the room.' The irony...), and the amount of litter is uncanny, but the patrons were much better behaved than they were the last time I came down here (I and my fellow volunteers packed up after being advised to do so by the police due to the many fights that broke out. The free concert was headlined by Morris Day and the Time with Cameo as support. Heh.).
It's something to do, and the fireworks are always a treat even if our city goes overboard with them, using any occasion (ball game, concert, New Year's, etcetera, boom, boom, flash, fizz, pop, etcetera) to set them off all year round (Are Zambelli and those kickbacks to local government officials to blame?). read more