Mermaid Parade
by Martin Ingber
Like the festivals of Carnevale in Venice or Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the Mermaid Parade is a seaside celebration of summer held annually on Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York. Known as the world's largest art parade, this high-spirited pageant features thousands of creative individuals in colorful, hand-made costumes, with thousands more participating as spectators …except for this year. With 2020 and the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, summer in the city and it's usual wealth of concert series, sporting events, holiday celebrations and more was rendered almost unrecognizable.
With summer fading away, I felt an urge to share a reflection of what was missed, in the form of some images -and especially some of the people- who have made past Mermaid Parades such a memorable highlight of New York City summers.
We have been living through some extraordinarily challenging events …but, as the saying goes, "This too shall pass".
Hopefully, we can all look forward to the return of better times, and opportunities to celebrate, in the years to come-
