Nothing means more than the start of summer in New York than the wild and wacky Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Surf Ave. is transformed into an amazing display of sea creature costumes and lovely mermaids. It’s basically the Halloween parade in the daytime but with alot less clothing and just as much fun. The twist is that all entrants do get judged by a panel of highly corrupt judges. Believe me bribery was seen all day long…food, drinks, phone numbers. This year the judges must have had a tough time because so many people came out with some amazing costumes and dance numbers. There was even a marriage proposal right in front of the judges by Neptune and his accepting fiance. Quite a touching moment. But this years King Neptune and Queen Mermaid were having lots of fun on their own. King Neptune, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce CEO Carlo A. Scissura, and the lovely Queen, SI model Hailey Claussen, got jiggy with the all female drum band Batala. The crowd just loved it.
King Neptune Carlo and lovely Queen Mermaid Hailey
Marriage Proposal by Neptune
Queen of Hearts Mellisa
People came from all parts of the world and country just march in the parade. There were folks from as far as Australia and Brazil. One mother/daughter entry came up from Louisiana on their very first trip to NYC just to march in the parade. Karen, the mom said she always loved mermaids and wanted to come up to New York with her daughter just for the fun of it. Lots of groups had some crazy costumes and fun dance routines.Danielle made an amazing Seahorse and got a bunch of kids to ride around in scooters with little seahorses. Great job. The Brooklyn Bombshells got over their technical difficulties at first and then wowed the judges with their fun dance of the Elvis classic…All Shook Up. Talk about shaking it up, the NY Samba group brought some Brazilian flavor to the parade. But the hits and shaking kept coming when the Gypsy Funk belly dance group were pleading for some candy. But probably the best group were the Charm City Tails version of Go Ask Alice with the Queen of Hearts on top of her game. Hats off the lead creator Melissa for the hard work in making it a fun dance routine. The crowd ate it up. Perennial favorites, The Sexcamaids, to it up as usual. They always have a fun group of dancers. Closing out the big groups was a nice tribute to rock legend David Bowie with a fun rendition of Let’s Dance. What a fitting way to kick off the summer fun. Dance the night away. Have a great summer everyone.
Have a great summer and dance
NYC Parade Life 
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