John Solomon, owner of Café Venezia on University Ave. in Berkeley conceived of and ran the annual “How-Berkeley-Can-You-Be-Parade” 1996. He personally invited Cacophony to “do anything you want” in a phone call to Sebastian Melmoth before the first parade.
Melmoth & J.D. Boggman put out a call for “meat providers” such as Carrie White from the movie “Carrie” Leatherface of Texas Chainsaw fame and Kal Spellitech from the Industrial Art Ensemble SEEMEN. These and throngs of other meat crazed Cacophonists created the first Meat Parade featuring P.E.T.A. (People Eatin’ Them Animals) and their mandatory Berkeley counter protestors The Veget-Aryans” Cremating entrails on BBQ grills, tossing generic brand cigarettes to the hordes of families and old hippies lining the streets and chainsawing pigs heads for two more years, P.E.T.A. hung up the cleavers in 1998 and the event morphed into early Zombie attacks and other meat related parade floats over the years.
