PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It's a family tradition for many, spending New Year's Day on Broad Street to watch the Mummers Parade. And about 10,000 participants are fine-tuning their performances with less than a week to go before show time.
The Mummers Parade starts at 9 a.m. on New Year’s Day. Participants perform on the west side of City Hall, where they are judged. Then they strut southbound along Broad Street to Washington Avenue. There are performance zones along Broad Street at Sansom, Pine and Carpenter streets. The parade should wrap up around 5 p.m.
Alex Walton plays a banjo for the Jersey String Band, one of 14 string band clubs in the parade. His club's performance has a spy theme.
"It's called ‘The Spy Who Mummed Me’ — like kind of a play off of Austin Powers,” he said. “We march second, so check us out.”
The Mummers Parade is in the Walton family’s blood.
“My brother is the captain of the String Band. My mom’s a marshal. My dad’s a banjo player. My nephew is a bell player and my other brother is a banjo player. He’ll be a dancer this year.”
Starting at 11 a.m. on New Year’s Day the public is invited to see the string bands get ready to step off for the parade at the staging areas along Market Street, from 17th to 21st streets; and along JFK Boulevard, from 17th to 20th streets.
Besides the string bands, there are four other divisions: comics, wench brigades, fancies and fancy brigades. The fancy brigades perform in the parade and stage two indoor performances at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where 10 clubs compete in Broadway-style productions.