A couple of firsts in the Mummers Parade

It was below freezing for the start of Thursday’s Mummers Parade, and members of the public were as rare as pearls in oysters. No matter, the Golden Crown Fancies stepped off on time. (For the record, Wednesday night’s freezing free outdoor performance at the Art Museum attracted no more than 10,000 party-goers. Question to the city — was it worth the cost, which still has not been announced?)

A couple of firsts in the parade.

Those of you who care know that high winds during the early-morning set-up destroyed some props and sent several Mummers to the hospital with reported light injuries.

The high winds created a threat to safety. The String Band Association decided to go on with the parade, but with no judging of performances, a first, which were cut to basics. A competition performance will be scheduled for the future. Reporting on this was published here earlier. 

As mentioned earlier, USA Today named the Mummers Parade the best holiday parade in the country, edging out some better-known parades such as the Rose in California and Macy’s Thanksgiving in New York. That was welcome, as the Mummers had suffered some unfair criticism in the past, where bad behavior by one or two were assigned to the whole parade.

It was refreshing to hear Mayor Cherelle Parker call the Mummers Parade, the oldest folk celebration in the nation, “amazing,” and to acknowledge the “time, energy and effort” it took to make it happen.

She took the mayor’s customary spot at the head of the String Band division, a spot vacated by her jackass predecessor, Jim Kenney, who came to believe his own bullshit that the parade was some kind of racist festival of hate.

In fact, Black bands marched in the first parade, in 1901. And in later ones. African-American bands were there at the origin.

It’s also fact that they dropped out because the judging was rigged against them.

In those early years, yes, the Mummers didn’t want Blacks in the parade. Women, too. It was a white male parade. There is no denying fact. Nor is there any denying that things have changed. A lot.

I can’t say when women wormed their way into the parade. A lot can be hidden under makeup and costumes.

I can say the parade was “officially” opened to women in 1975 (although some may have marched earlier). Blackface was officially banned from the parade in 1964, which is more than 60 years ago.

Since then more and more women have been performers in the parade (they had been background workers, like seamstresses, makeup artists and kitchen workers, long before that). More and more Black, and other minority people, joined in.

Speaking of women brings me to another first in the 2026 parade. Dr. Kelliann Gallagher is the first female captain of a string band, the veteran Hegeman group. And Thursday afternoon, doing her band’s slimmed-down Las Vegas-themed routine, she married Stanley Welles and Juliana Bonilla. (In addition to being a physician, Gallagher is an ordained minister.)

A Mummers first, as far as we know.

Because the String Bands did not have to position props and scenery, set-up time was almost nothing, and the parade ended well before the city-mandated 5 p.m. deadline.

Of course, that the parade is down to 14 String Bands also makes it faster. There were as many as 27 String Bands in the mid-80s and the parade went on beyond 9 p.m. (You did not want to be a member of the last band. There were more sanitation workers than spectators.)

Some argue that performing without elaborate sets and props brings the String Bands back to its origins — music and marching drills.

There is something to that, but that’s a debate for another day.

I will close with a few random pictures (snapped off the TV, sorry about the quality) proving that charges of racism are just low-down lies from people who hate the idea of other people having a good time on a Philadelphia winter’s day.

Another

One more

There’s room in the parade for anyone with the talent, energy, and time.