Brooklyn's creatives prepare for 40th anniversary of Coney Island's Iconic Mermaid Parade
NEW YORK - Thousands of sea creatures around the city are dusting off their fins and tails. They're spending this week attaching trim, gluing sparkles and painting banners in preparation for the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. The parade kicks off at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 18.
"We get people from all over the country and all over the world coming in and participating, and viewing the parade," says Adam Rinn, Artistic Director of Coney Island USA.
According to the non-profit arts organization, the annual affair is the largest art parade in the nation, prancing through the People's Playground every June. After a two-year hiatus caused by the pandemic, it's back, just in time for the parade's 40th anniversary.
"The people who have been participating in the parade, the people who've been making costumes, have two years of just pent-up creativity. And it's going to shine," Rinn adds.
This year is another first.
"We have got our first transgender queen leading the parade," he says.
Mx. Justin Vivian Bond will be reigning Queen, while the parade's King will be former NYC Health Commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi.
Around the city, longtime mermaids are busy preparing for the aquatic occasion. Kate Dale won multiple awards for best mermaid over the years.
"It used to be a lot smaller, it's really grown and it's really become... part of the culture of the city," she recalls.
She remembers the first parade she saw, in 1990 or 1991.
"Then I knew it was for me... I was like, this is great. It's camp, its kitsch, its craft," she laughs.
Bambi the Mermaid has been obsessed with the parade for nearly as long.
"The Mermaid parade is the high holy day, the pinnacle, of Coney Island's year," she says.
It's where she met her husband, Chuck Varga, it's where he proposed, and where they got married five years ago.
"I live 364 days until the next parade. So the fact that I was able to meet someone who could get into it as much and love it as much, it's like our whole year revolves around it," she tells CBS 2's Hannah Kliger.
"It represents, to me, a golden era of unregulated, limitless spectacle," Varga adds. "And that's what I've always been about."
Check-in for the parade starts at 10 a.m. on Surf Avenue between 21st and 22nd streets. There will be an official afterparty at the Coney Island Brewery, 1904 Surf Avenue.
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