Hair was still sprayed high, decolletage was still stuffed inside leopard-printed lycra and, basically, Honfest 2011 rolled on as usual, despite the controversy over this 18-year-old north Baltimore event. (Here’s a Honfest 2011 photo gallery by Bill Hughes. Here’s a Honfest 2011 blog post  with some some more excellent photography and video by Chris Council.)

After some morning rain subsided, the crowd grew to what, by all accounts, was a nearly normal size for a Honfest Saturday, strung out along “the Avenue” in Hampden. There was no sign of the protest threatened by people who find the “hon” meme to be more commercialized classist mockery than jolly tribute.

A few of the people who wore cat’s-eye glasses said they brought them from outside of Hampden specifically to defy Honfest organizer Denise Whiting, who caused a stir by sending a memo to Hampden merchants recently by saying that none of them should sell that “hon” prop, or others.

Political candidates and their backers, including some Otis Rolley supporters, worked the crowd, in defiance of another part of that memo to merchants: a warning not to discuss hot topics like politics and religion. (Was the man with the “MAC USERS FOR OBAMA” button on his hat also trying to make a free speech statement? Or is it that he just doesn’t get around to changing out his buttons?)

Nearby him, at the official “Glamour Lounge,” pianist and vocalist Kendra Holt belted out blues tunes, as stylists gave festival-goers who paid for them their “hon” makeovers. For $10 they could also buy glasses and a feather boa and receive a $10 cafe Hon gift card.

One woman expanded on the Honfest tradition of bringing your pet to see-and-be-seen, one-upping the people with  Shiba Inu’s, kittens with pink-dyed fur and Labrador puppies by bringing … a baby duck.

“This girl is going to Australia and can’t keep  him, so she gave him to me,” the new duck-owner said, explaining that the transaction had occurred moments ago, right there at Honfest.

There was pet diversity, but was there racial diversity? The latest column from the Sun’s Dan Rodricks asks readers to tell him where in Baltimore one finds racial diversity, “a glimpse of post-racial America.” Honfest, whatever else one thinks of the event, is not one of those places. It was pretty much a white crowd.

That was the case with the Miss Hon finalists, lined up yesterday on the main stage to be sized up by judges for their outfits and their ability to speak in a Baltimore accent.

“What’s that word?” the emcee asked one contestant.

“Beth l’em,” she said.

“So the word is ‘bethlehem,’” he said. “Okay let’s hear you say it one more time!”

“My husband works at Beth l’em Steel,” she said, as the crowd applauded.

Today, as Honfest resumes, the judges will announce their decision and select one of these women to be the 2011 “Bawlmer’s Best Hon.” The Honfest website explains that they “must be available 3 or four times a year to dress up and must ride in the Mayors Christmas Parade December 7th.”