These colours run

Friday, November 30, 2012
It’s about life and goodness

The clouds of colour billowing around the kilometre markers contrast to the grey clouds of the overcast sky. The 12,500 people in their pristine white T-shirts have waited patiently in a cool morning breeze for the opportunity to walk or run the five kilometres—a “fun run” much more focussed on “fun” than “run.”

It’s the first instalment of The Color Run in Australia, November 25 at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse. Billed as “the happiest 5k on the planet,” The Color Run draws from the colourful tradition of Holi, the Indian spring festival drawing on some of the stories of Hindu mythology but focussed on celebrating the new life and colour of the season.

In its Color Run celebration, the event involves the powdered colour and music but also raises money for charity from the entry fees paid. Yet more than Hindu tradition and more than charitable donations, The Color Run is primarily good, healthy fun.

At the after-party, where the finishing runners were issued with bags of coloured cornflour and gathered for countdowns for regular “colour throws,” I climbed to a nearby rise to take some photos across the powder-doused crowd. Other people were sharing this vantage point and I overheard a conversation among a group of middle-aged participants, celebrating the life, energy, colour and fun in the mostly young crowd below them—“and all this without any alcohol,” they commented.

In suburban Melbourne, there is no reason for an event such as this. If it had not happened on this Sunday morning, everyone would have had other things to do. It does not fit with any of our cultural traditions. Of course, there are sponsors who see it as good for their brand but they usually come later. But why do so many people join in with the offer of simple active fun?

First, someone created something—not a work of art as we usually understand it but a creative and engaging event. And second, it was engaging because it gave us the opportunity to create and participate in something—a colourful, energetic, happy community, albeit temporary.

As the coloured powder drifts across the crowd and the music has the crowd singing and jumping along, the colour—the raw material for beautiful acts of creativity—acts as something that draws people together. We take each other’s photos. We laugh at our healthy sillinesses and at each other—in good ways.

There is nothing too profound but somehow it’s about life and goodness.

And colour is our excuse.

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Nathan Brown
Author

Nathan Brown

Nathan is Book Editor at Signs Publishing. He is a former magazine editor, a published writer and an author or editor of more than a dozen books. He is also a co-convener of Manifest, a community exploring, encouraging and celebrating faithful creativity.