Organizers To Launch Kickstarter In Hopes Of Saving Mermaid Parade
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Organizers want to stage a Coney Island Mermaid Parade this year, but they have warned it will not happen if they can't raise the needed funds.
The Mermaid Parade, at Coney Island in Brooklyn, is the largest art parade in the country. It has been going strong since 1983.
But organizers have warned that this year, the parade faces unprecedented challenges – including new city regulations and restrictions that have added to the cost of staging the event, and damage from the "malevolent sorceress" that was Superstorm Sandy back in October of last year.
Thus, organizers said, the Mermaid Parade has a budget shortfall of $100,000, which they called "an impossible gap for a tiny non-profit organization like ours."
Organizers this coming Tuesday will launch a "Save the Mermaid Parade" Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising the $100,000. The organizers will launch a campaign to draw attention to the Kickstarter, and have urged fans to spread the word.
If the Kickstarter is not successful, the news will not be good.
"If we don't meet our funding goal, there'll be no parade," parade founder and artistic director Dick Zigun said on the parade Web site.
Organizers have opened registration for the parade, and said registration for this year is "more important than ever before."
The event is meant to be a celebration of the sand, the sea, Coney Island pride, and artistic self-expression. The parade is followed by a Mermaid Parade Ball which features a burlesque show and a number of sideshow acts.
If the parade goes head as organizers hope, it will be held at 1 p.m. June 22.
You May Also Be Interested In These Stories
