Were the 2nd Annual Great Barrington Sunshine Orange Subaru Crosstrek Parade a new product for sale, the investors on Shark Tank would be stoked about its astronomical growth potential. I mean, look at the numbers. Between year one and year two the number of participating cars in the parade has multiplied from 14 to 117, more than eight-fold. Drivers are so keen to get in on the action they’re willing to drive half-way across the continent for it.
“You have a deal,” I can imagine the money people announcing, with understated assurance.
Sorry not sorry capitalism, but making money off of the Sunshine Orange Subaru Crosstrek Parade is, in the words of the event’s founder, “Not what this is about.”
In fact, Michelle Kaplan is often pitched revenue-generating ideas to make hay off of her fun brainchild, and she turns her nose up at all of them. The idea of selling customized pins made by the Subaru company as rare collectors’ items? “That’s so not what we’re doing here.” A local car dealership’s offer to sell limited-edition Sunshine Orange Subaru Parade tee-shirts? No swag for me, thanks.
“I just want the pins to be for people that were there and really enjoyed it,” Kaplan says, “and then just can have a little memorabilia from it.”
Ironically, though, what differentiates Sunshine Orange Subarus from Sun Blaze Pearl or Tangerine Pearl Subarus relates to the basic rules of Economics 101.
“The thing that’s special about this car,” Kaplan explained, “is they stopped making it, so whoever has one has one.”
Low supply, meet high demand.
But what if, God forbid, someone shows up to the parade driving the wrong color vehicle? What if a Sun Blaze Pearl Crosstrek or Tangerine Orange Pearl Crosstrek arrives on the scene?
Yes, she nods sadly, that party foul happened last year.
Was Kaplan forced to turn the interlopers away?
“No. They were very sweet. They came all the way from New Jersey. But,” she says, “I was not happy about it.”
This year, in fact, she’s taken steps to ensure there can be no repeat of 2025’s Sun Blaze Pearl Subaru scandal. “I’m gonna have a big bouncer at the entrance and people will have to flash their driver’s license that has the exact shade of orange.”
Really?
“Nah, I’m just kidding.”
(But seriously, readers. If Tangerine and Sun Blaze folks do show up, you’re gonna have to take up the rear.)
To advertise the parade, Kaplan has put into practice an architected marketing strategy put together by Subaru’s corporate office. Ha, got you again. She’s actually borrowed from best keg party practices, and has been putting flyers on cars, light poles and on crosswalks.
Also, she has Sunshine Orange Subaru Crosstrek spies. “A lot of people send me pictures if they see one out and about.” She has spies, also would-be Chief Virality Officers. “People love to give me advice about it, and they’ll say, “Oh, you should do it closer to Halloween, or “You should do it with the fall foliage, or you should ‘Make it a fundraiser.’
Again, thank you but no thank you. “Some people have a hard time grasping that concept, that it’s just its own stupid thing, just a celebration of absurdity and pointlessness.”
The aspect of the Great Barrington Sunshine Orange Subaru Crosstrek Parade that Kaplan wants to nurture is its serendipitousness. Who, for instance, could have imagined that a line of 14 orange cars would provide comfort to a grieving daughter? Yet it did, and Kaplan tells the story. “I’m not on TikTok, but I guess it went viral, and this one woman said that her mom, who passed away, had an orange Subaru. When she passed away, whenever she’d see one, she would just smile and say, ‘Oh, it’s mom saying hi.’ So when she saw this parade of orange Subarus…. she just started crying.”
And while Michelle Kaplan certainly appreciates all the attention her pet project has generated, and how many more people will be coming out to cheer on the cars this year than last year, the notoriety does detract somewhat from her favorite aspect of the whole thing. “What’s really exciting to me are people that are just visiting and out and about doing their thing and then they just turn around they hear beeping and they see it.” She smiles broadly, delighted by the thought of their delight.
It strikes me, delighted by her delight at the delight of the surprised passersbys, that while Michelle Kaplan didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur, she’s accidentally turned out to be a pretty good one. All these folks coming to town from Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia and Tennessee need to eat and sleep and pass the time, and her recommendations for where to accomplish those tasks include the Little Yellow Bookstore, WBCR, No Comply, Cafe Holli and The Cove Bowling Lanes, among other local businesses and organizations.
Perhaps the moral of this story is that we could use more pointlessness and absurdity in our lives.
Last question: Is the parade perfect as is, or is there anything she’d change?
Kaplan considers this. “If I thought about it differently, I probably would have done this in Orange, Massachusetts.”
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Drivers of Sunshine Orange Subaru Crosstreks are invited to meet at the big parking lot behind the Great Barrington Big Y/ Staples complex at 11 a.m. for an on-time roll-out at 11:30, on the morning of Sunday, September 27th.
Everyone else is invited to line the sidewalks and cheer pointlessly and absurdly.
