Rain, rain can’t make the Mermaid Parade go away.
Cloudy skies and spot showers were no match for the schools of scantily clad oddballs and costumed children that invaded Coney Island on June 20, as Sodom by the Sea played host to the 33rd-Annual Mermaid Parade. And while a few spots of rain may have prevented the 2015 edition of the parade from matching or surpassing last year’s record attendance, the weather did not stop plenty of people from coming out and getting their fin fun on.
“It might not have been 800,000 people like last year, but it was still around 400,000,” said Dick Zigun, the parade’s founder and unofficial mayor of Coney Island. “It is a wonderful endorsement of how much people enjoy the parade.”
Zigun believes that the parade’s vibe has changed over the last couple of years, with less concern over political issues and more emphasis on aesthetics.
“There have been years where we had protests about Coney Island or oil spills or nudity,” Zigun said. “But recently, this year especially, it has been about bringing your best game and showing off your ingenuity with costumes, makeup, and floats.”
There was plenty of ingenuity on display — from folks like the Sexcamaids, a dance troupe made up primarily of professionals who spend 10 weeks prior to the parade learning four choreographed dance routines.
“I had an amazing time dancing this year,” said Mckenzie Scott, who moved to Greenpoint five years ago from Indiana, and was practicing with the group just two weeks later. She said the weather had no impact on the Sexcamaids’ dancing.
“The rain just warmed everybody up.”
