PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — About 10,000 Mummers are getting ready to strut along Broad Street starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday for Philadelphia's New Year’s Day tradition, the 124th Mummers Parade. Among the sequined and feathered performers are 10 Fancy Brigade clubs.
The Fancy Brigades not only participate in the parade but compete in two indoor shows at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Tourism officials originally brought the brigades indoors during the late 1990s, to guarantee a New Year’s Day show to out-of-town visitors despite poor weather conditions.
Clubs in the division perform four-and-a-half-minute Broadway-style productions at 11:30 a.m. to a paying audience at the Convention Center. They then join the other divisions — the Comics, Wench Brigades, Fancies and String Bands — and strut down Broad Street, from City Hall to Washington Avenue. After that, they hop on buses and head back to the Convention Center to perform a second indoor show at 5 p.m.
Anthony Stagliano Jr., a member of the Fancy Brigade Association board of directors, says there’s nothing like being a mummer on New Year's Day.
“I started when I was 13 years old. I'm 48 now. It's been a long time that I have been in the organization,” he shared. “There really is no way to explain it. Most people are born into it. Some people grow up in it. You just can't cut it off. It's part of your DNA.”
The 10 clubs take part in a judged competition. One of the brigades, the Jokers, celebrates its 75th anniversary, while Stagliano says the two-time champion South Philadelphia Vikings are going for a third winning year.
While no prizes are involved, Stagliano says it’s no less intense. “They are competing for bragging rights and they are competing to be champions, but there is no money in this,” he said.
“This is for love. This is for the love of the art and the music, and the pageantry. You really don't win anything, but the amount of time and energy that is spent to put this on is amazing.”