What do you get when you put topless women, protesters, people dressed in medieval costume, huge beers, and weird crafts together?
You get Comfest.
I have been to Comfest once previously in my life, and from what I remember, it was a lemonade, sugar-fueled walk through Goodale Park looking for a place to get a henna tattoo, with people watching. My high school soul was not prepared to witness topless women with their breasts painted, pushing their strollers with their mohawk-ridden toddlers while they devoured a turkey leg and mug of beer.
Community Festival, or 'Comfest' as us locals call it, is predominantly known for being one thing: interesting. Finally age 21, my boyfriend, myself, and two of our comrades decided to take a stroll through Goodale Park during Comfest, beers in hand, and this is what we saw:
The first noticeable thing that immediately surrounds you is the smell of pot. Interestingly enough, there are cops everywhere, who have seemingly decided to give this weekend away to the hippies, as no one is ever arrested for smoking, especially when there are other more pressing matters that the cops have to watch out for- someone was stabbed last year.
The next thing that we saw was a woman dressed in full medieval garb, over six feet tall, and donning a horned helmet. She was just standing there, not saying anything, enjoying the cloudy weather. After walking by her, we saw a woman wearing a python. Remember when Britney Spears was onstage with a snake? This is exactly what we witnessed on the streets of Columbus.
Directly next to python lady was her daughter, carrying a smaller snake around her neck. Behind her was a group of men wearing plaid shirts and horrible khakis. They were protesting the recent SCOTUS decision that no states could legally ban same-sex marriage based on Biblical readings, while pro-gay marriage people stood in front of them. Most memorable was the woman donning a rainbow unicorn mask and a drunk woman yelling how the protesters were spewing hate.
The next interesting thing was a man who got on stage and yelled at everyone to sing "You are my Sunshine" like it was a kindergarten song circle. At that point, we wanted to keep walking, where we witnessed one lady who was just walking around straight-up topless, no body paint, nothing. There were boobs everywhere, and two more women who were also topless with body paint covering their almost-bare-breasts.
After a two hour walk of people watching, I would say Comfest did its job. The point was for the families, and droves of people who flocked to Comfest to live their lives as freely as possible.
