The 19th Annual Mermaid Parade
VALERIE REISS
06/25/2001
Attention all fish fetishists, sea creatures, sailors, freaks, geeks and the gawkers who love them! Dust off that shell bra! Bust out the glitter! Rev up the antique car! It’s the 19th Annual Mermaid Parade!
With about 1,000 participants and almost half a million spectators, the wonderfully artsy-freaky parade has grown nearly too big for its iridescent britches. So this year changes have been made to accommodate the swell: The new Coney Island stadium will house costume-judging and extra mermaidian entertainment for $10. You’ll still be able to view the parade and ribbon-cutting ceremony from the street. The parade will be a week later than usual because, says the Web site, “we would be jerks to tell the Brooklyn Cyclones that we had to use their stadium before their first opening game.”
This year’s parade leader has yet to be announced; previous years have been led by King Neptune a.k.a. David Byrne, and Queen Latifah (who needs no nom-de-mer).
For more information, go to the Web site. To register, go to www.zinemart.com/coney/mermaidreg.html. The registration cost of being in the parade is as follows: $5 per child marcher; $10 per adult marcher; $20 per group of marchers (3 or more); $15 for musical groups; $20 for antique cars; and $20 for homemade floats.
Photo: The 1999 Mermaid parade. (Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times)