Summer Solstice at the Kimmel Center

It’s 10:30 AM on Sunday and my all-night attendance at the Summer Solstice at the Kimmel Center included a lack of sleep that blurred night into drum-circle dawn into day. I apologize in advance for any ramblings. Sleep deprivation’s creative powers, a recipe combining dopiminergic stimulation and delerious logic, has been known to be both a source of great inspiration and a culprit of verbage.

But since I err on the side of caution, I won’t risk my brain taking me away too far. Here are the photos from the night with captions. Keep in mind we only saw events from about 10 PM onward. The following appear chronologically:

11 PM: A toned-down cabaret in Innovation Studio commenced and emcee’d by Chestnut Hillian Karen Gross. Gross’s own show is titled “Sex and the Single Singer,” and the title gives the idea away - a lament and ode to singledom and a crying wish for love, etc. The picture above is in the middle of a Jewish-grandma bit. She finished off with a cover of “Passionate Kisses” by Lucinda Williams, which I think the whole crowd could have done without.

We only stayed for three acts. The performers seemed to feel that a funny bit ought to be counterbalanced with a solemn bit. It does not. Plus the ambience of Innovation Studio at the Kimmel Center wasn’t seedy enough for cabaret.

12 AM: Bob and Barbara’s Drag Queen Contest. The popularity of this event eclipsed all others, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a good sense of it because it was so crowded. People lined the balconies in the upper tiers to get a shot of it. I’m not sure how I got this picture.

12:30 AM: Enjoying the Kimmel Center’s rooftop lounge, bizarrely accompanied by Three Stooges episodes projected on an inflatable display. The cheers from the drag show below outdid any sound from the movie. But Stooges aside, the gridded glass arch of the Kimmel Center is always wondrous from up top. Tarot readings were being offered, but I had mine done at the Rotunda on Friday the 13th, and I didn’t see why my fate would have already changed.

1 AM: Christian Rich, billed as a “rap duo” but seen here as but a single rapper, performing in Pereleman Theater. This group, unfortunately, comprised part of the night’s disappointing half. The idea was that an energizing, fast-paced late-night dance would keep people up.  But most of it was slow-paced R&B, including a rendition of “My Girl” the band suddenly chose to play unbeknownst to the rapper. The kid pictured to the bottom was one of a surprising number of children inexplicably dancing to Jay-Z’s “I just wanna love u” at 1 in the morning. He worked hard to outshine the rest. He displayed a frightening exhibitionism.

2 AM: Philly ska band Ruder Than You performing in the common area of the Kimmel Center, fronted by a shameless, indefatigable dancer. I practically skanked my way through high school. It was a nice throwback.

3-5 AM: Fuzzy echoes of the funk band playing in the common area fell down the stairs into a makeshift bunking room. I read scattered back issues of Vanity Fair while Holly enjoyed her third of a circle.

5 AM: By the time the hallmark event came, of course, only the most dedicated - mostly those with dreadlocks or tie-dye shirts or some asthetic associated with a person who owns their own drum - were still around. The drum circle was led by a teacher at an Arabic day camp in Chestnut Hill and his young proteges. The drums pounded as the sky, seen through the expansive arch of the Kimmel Center, turned from black to navy to blue. No one seemed all that tired. Especially not the guy here on the left, who literally decided to go to the beat of his own drum and broke out into a solo unwanted by anyone:

I have to commend the Kimmel Center for putting on this type of unconventional event. It was a great time. And now I have no Sunday.