The Mermaid Parade At Coney Island USA Returns This September

Join in for The 39th Annual Mermaid Parade on Sunday, September 12, 2021! The parade kicks off at 1pm (rain or shine) on West 21st and Surf Avenue and proceeds on Surf Avenue to West 10th, then heads south to the Boardwalk and then west back to its ending point at Steeplechase Plaza on the Boardwalk.

Coney Island USA has rescheduled the MERMAID PARADE to end the Summer Season, on the last day lifeguards keep the Brooklyn Beach Open.

CIUSA is committed to following all Covid-19 safety protocols in place. Our goal is to ensure the safety of our participants and spectators.

The Mermaid Parade is a unique and artistic celebration of ancient mythology and the honky-tonk seaside ritual that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to the amusement district. The parade features marching bands, drill teams, floats, antique cars and some 1,500 participants dressed in hand-made costumes of mermaids, sea creatures, amusement rides and Neptunes. It is the largest art parade in the nation and the largest event of the year in Coney Island.

According to tradition, Queen Mermaid and King Neptune will be wheeled through the parade in an antique wicker Boardwalk Rolling Chair that dates back to 1923.

Immediately after the parade, at approximately 4 pm, Dick Zigun, leads the King and Queen procession through the Maimonides Park Parking lot (19th and Surf Avenue) to the beach, for the official Beach Ceremony and closing of the ocean for summer swimming season.

Parade Registration and additional information for the Parade are available at: www.mermaidparade.com

Parade Registration is from 10am-1pm in the parking lot on 21st street and Surf Ave.

* The Parade will start at West 21st Street and Surf Avenue

* The Parade will roll east to West 10th Street

* At West 10th Street the Parade will turn south towards the boardwalk

* Cars and Motorized Floats continue down Surf Ave. passing W. 10th Street and exit the parade.

* At the Boardwalk, the marchers and push-pull floats will turn west and head towards West 17th St.

* At Steeplechase Plaza, the Parade will disband.

ABOUT THE PARADE
The Mermaid Parade was founded in 1983 by Coney Island USA, the not-for-profit arts organization that also produces the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. The Mermaid Parade pays homage to Coney Island's forgotten Mardi Gras, which lasted from 1903 to 1954 and draws from a host of other sources resulting in a wonderful and wacky event that is unique to Coney Island. The parade was founded to achieve three goals: bring mythology to life for local residents who live on streets named Mermaid and Neptune; create self-esteem in a district that is often disregarded; and let artistic New Yorkers find self-expression in public. Previous King Neptunes and Queen Mermaids have included Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Queen Latifah, Moby, Annabella Sciorra, Judah Friedlander, Deborah Harry, Chris Stein, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, David Johansen, Karen Duffy, Carole Radziwill, Arlo Guthrie, Nora Guthrie, Harvey Keitel and Daphne Keitel.

ABOUT QUEEN MERMAID
Lynn Nottage is an American playwright whose work often deals with the lives of marginalized people. She is a professor of Playwriting at Columbia University. She was the first (and remains the only) woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice; the first in 2009 for Ruined, and the second in 2017 for Sweat. Nottage was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2019. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world.

ABOUT KING NEPTUNE
Tony Gerber is a two-time Emmy winner. He directed and executive produced Kingdom of the White Wolf, a 3-part natural history series for National Geographic, filmed on location in the High Arctic. He is a producer of Jane (2017 film) about the life and work of Dr. Jane Goodall. For CNN Films he directed, and co-wrote with Meryl Streep, We Will Rise chronicling former First Lady Michelle Obama's trip to Africa to raise awareness of the importance of girl's education which won an American Television Academy Honor and a Cine Golden Eagle. In 2005, Gerber co-founded NY-based production company, Market Road Films with playwright Lynn Nottage. Nottage and Gerber are currently developing a feature film, Everlasting Yea! for Amazon Studios and are Executive Producers of Deep South, a 10-part podcast for Stitcher investigating an unsolved 1950s lynching and the conspiracy of silence in a small southern town.

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