Mermaid Parade

Thousands of attendees donned sequins, body paint, shells, pasties, scales, flowers, headpieces (and in many cases, very little else) to celebrate creativity, nautical mythology, fertility, the start of summer, and letting one’s freak flag fly.

The annual parade returns for its 2023 edition on Saturday, June 17 at 1 PM.

Mx Justin Vivian Bond (as Queen Mermaid) and former NYC health commissioner Dr. Dave A. Chokshi (as King Neptune) led over 3,000 mermaids, mermen, merpeople, and sea creatures of all sorts along Surf Ave and the boardwalk.

”Please be assured that the Mermaid Parade will return in 2022, better than ever!,” organizers write.

One of our favorite annual summer traditions is returning in September this year

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade’s virtual replacement, ”Tail-a-Thon,” streams on Saturday, and here’s what you can expect.

The Mermaid Parade — which couldn’t happen in 2020 for obvious reasons — is a celebration of the season, creativity, nautical mythology, fertility, and letting ones freak flag fly. Around 3000 people took part in 2019, including 12 marching bands & lots of scantily clad sea creatures.

”We fool around a lot, but we recognize and empathize with the desperate situation of so many of our fellow humans. We want to do our part, and will be distributing at least half the proceeds of the Tail-a-Thon to a group of charities,” Mermaid Parade Organizers write.

”There will be some version of the Mermaid Parade,” Coney Island USA director Dick Zigun says.

The Mermaid Parade route is just over a mile away from the stretch of Mermaid Ave, between W35th and W36th Streets, that’s been rechristened Woody Guthrie Way in honor of their late father.