Rookie

This year marked the eighth and final public celebration of Bowiemas in Seattle, Washington. Chrissie White was on hand to take pictures—all of the photos in this album are from this year’s last hurrah.

Some history: This all started back in 2004, when I was a 14-year-old crazed David Bowie fan. My friend Elaine was one as well, and we were taking a world-religions class together where we had to come up with our own religion and holiday. We came up with the religion Bowieism, and our holiday, in celebration of Bowie’s birthday (January 8), was christened Bowiemas.

When Bowie’s birthday came around that year I had a celebration at my friend’s apartment. About 20 people showed up for a lovely mellow gathering. The next year it grew to a 60-person dance party. The year after that we moved it to a warehouse in Wallingford, a neighborhood in Seattle, and drew 250 people to the rowdiest party I have ever seen. Couch cushions were ripped to shreds, the floorboards threatened to cave in, and we had to shut the party down at 12:30 because of the cops.

Now, eight years later, Bowiemas has become a huge, 500-plus-person event, with costumes and burlesque and a completely packed dance floor, at a giant venue in Belltown called the Underground Event Center.

Bowiemas has given me some of the funnest times of my life, but I’m about to move away from Washington, so this year it was time to pack it in. But not without throwing one last party.

The eighth and final Bowiemas was the biggest, most outrageous, most beautiful Bowiemas ever. The decorations, the sound, the crowd, the costumes—it was all so perfect and SO much fun!

I’d like to thank Lyle Echo for co-producing Bowiemas with me, as well as our amazing volunteers and the whole gorgeous crowd that showed up to celebrate our holiday of choice one last time.

Bowiemas is over, but Bowieism lives on.