Just when it was looking like the mermaids in the Parade at Coney Island were going to be washed away, the rain stopped and the festivities commenced! The slight rain prior to the start of the parade did not show any signs of slowing down the spirit of the day.

Tens of thousands came out, as they usually do, for the 33rd Annual Mermaid Parade at Coney Island, despite the March-like weather, dressed in their mermaid, pirate and jelly fish best!

A Giant Squid! made of cardboard came sloshing down the boardwalk. The Coney Island Mermaid Parade is reported as the largest parade in the nation according to the Mermaid parade website.

On the Mermaid parade website the goal of the parade is to share mythology with the local residents along with allowing New Yorker’s to embrace self expression. The Mermaid Parade has no ethnic, religious, or commercial aim, according to the website, unlike most parades.

From the parade website:

The Mermaid Parade is the largest art parade in the nation. A celebration of ancient mythology and honky-tonk rituals of the seaside, it showcases over 3,000 creative individuals from all over the five boroughs and beyond, opening the summer with incredible art, entrepreneurial spirit and community pride. The parade highlights Coney Island Pageantry based on a century of many Coney parades, celebrates the artistic vision of the masses, and ensures that the summer season is a success by bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the amusement area in a single day.

The MERMAID PARADE specifically was founded in 1983 with 3 goals: it brings mythology to life for local residents who live on streets named Mermaid and Neptune ; it creates self-esteem in a district that is often disregarded as “entertainment”; and it lets artistic New Yorkers find self-expression in public.

Unlike most parades, this one has no ethnic, religious, or commercial aims. It’s a major New York holiday invented by artists! An American version of the summer-solstice celebration, it takes pride of place with West African Water Festivals and Ancient Greek and Roman street theater. It’s features participants dressed in hand-made costumes based on themes and categories set by us. This creates an artistic framework on which artists can improvise, resulting in the flourishing of frivolity, dedication, pride, and personal vision that has become how New York celebrates summer.

A Mermaid Gallery: