CAPE ELIZABETH – It wasn’t hard to figure out where “Goth Fly a Kite” was taking place in Fort Williams Park Saturday afternoon.
With a broiling sun and the temperature climbing near 90, the park was filled with beachgoers, a wedding party and sightseers, most wearing T-shirts and shorts in bright summer colors. The Goths were dedicated to upholding their image, donning a sea of black clothes for their annual outing of kite-flying, picnicking and other fun and games on top of a hill overlooking Portland Head Light.
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It was the outdoorsy part of a southern Maine Goth weekend, kicked off with a pre-party Friday night and due to be followed by a party at a downtown nightclub Saturday night and then capped with a “hangover brunch” Sunday at a Munjoy Hill restaurant.
Jason Marston of Lewiston — known as Thor’s Son to his friends — said he made some concessions to the heat for this Goth weekend, his 10th.
He said he normally wears black jeans, a long-sleeved black shirt and black boots. Plus, there was the handmade chain-mail shirt he’d normally don as the final touch.
This year, it was a loose, three-quarter-sleeve black shirt, dark green shorts, sandals and a black hat to protect his head of thinning hair from sunburn. He also took care to keep hydrated with bottled water.
Marston said the Goth lifestyle might strike outsiders as dark and dour, but that’s not the case.
“It’s finding the brightness in the darkest of things,” he said. “Black humor, horror movies. The classic stereotype of Goths is picnicking in a cemetery, but, hey, it’s quiet and nobody’s going to bother you.”
Goth Fly a Kite has been going on for about 12 years, said the organizer of this year’s event, Amy Black.
She said the event draws in Goths from throughout Maine and New England and from as far away as Georgia.
As she spoke, a kickball game began and Black said there was only one new rule for the game to accommodate the Goths: “Don’t clash.” Dan Goldsmith of Arlington, Mass., was one of a handful of Goths with a kite flying — a black triangle dotted with peace signs.
Goldsmith said most people think Goths are different, but they just take the idea of dressing up and going out pretty far in one direction.
“I like the aesthetics of the clothes,” he said, as his wife and 2-year-old daughter, in Goth babywear, stood nearby.
Joe Osmond of Portland said what drew him to the Goths is much simpler.
“I’m not too Goth,” Osmond said. ‘I just hang out with the Goths. I don’t know what it is — some say it’s the music, some say it’s the clothes. I think it’s just a good group of people.”
Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:
emurphy@mainetoday.com
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