Coney Island Mermaid Parade

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade is a parade that celebrates the beginning of the summer season (late June) in Coney Island, New York.

The parade

The Mermaid Parade is held in celebration of the beginning of the summer season, and so it traditionally takes place on the Saturday closest to the calendar start of summer, June 21, regardless of the weather. The tradition began in 1983, when the first event of this kind was conceptualized and organized by Dick Zigun, who is sometimes dubbed the "Mayor of Coney Island", and who was the founder of the non-profit arts group Coney Island USA. The last six parades (up to 2013) were held on June 21, 2008; June 20, 2009; June 19, 2010; June 18, 2011; June 23, 2012; June 22, 2013; June 21, 2014. The 2015 parade is to be held on Saturday June 20, starting at 1 pm.

The parade of June 22, 2013 was almost canceled due to resources being consumed by the recovery from Hurricane Sandy; it was rescued from a shortfall of funding by launching a successful Kickstarter $100,000 campaign raising over $117,000.

Coney Island

Coney Island is a peninsular residential neighborhood, beach, and leisure/entertainment destination on the Atlantic Ocean in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, New York City. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by land fill. The residential portion of the peninsula is a community of 60,000 people in its western part, with Sea Gate to its west, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and Gravesend to the north.

Coney Island is well known as the site of amusement parks and a seaside resort. The attractions reached a historical peak during the first half of the 20th century, declining in popularity after World War II and years of neglect. In recent years, the area has seen the opening of MCU Park stadium and has become home to the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team, as well as the opening of a new amusement park among several adjacent ones.

Geography

Coney Island is the westernmost part of the barrier islands of Long Island, and is about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide. It was formerly an island that was separated from the main part of Brooklyn by Coney Island Creek, a partial tidal mudflats, but it has since been developed into a peninsula. There were plans early in the 20th century to dredge and straighten the creek as a ship canal, but they were abandoned, and the center of the creek was filled in completely to allow construction of the Belt Parkway before World War II, and it was filled in again in 1962 with the construction of the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge. The western and eastern ends of the island are now peninsulas.

Mermaid (disambiguation)

A mermaid is believed to be a half-woman, half-fish creature.

Films/Movies

Music/songs

Places around the world