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The Coney Island Mermaid Parade takes place every year by the sea in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, usually in mid-to-late June. The Parade is a lively and welcoming ocean-themed event, which is open to all comers. It is a form of alternative festival.

 

A completely original creation of Coney Island USA, the Mermaid Parade is the nation's largest art parade and one of New York City's greatest summer events. The parade is proud to have some incredible sponsors. Click here for answers to common questions.

 

Many people like to watch the Parade on the boardwalk, but the boardwalk only features marchers and push-pull floats. Surf Avenue allows viewing of antique cars and motorized floats as well.

 

Coney Island is the westernmost of the barrier islands of Long Island, about four miles (6 km) long and one-half mile wide. It used to be an island, separated from the main part of Brooklyn by Coney Island Creek, part of which was little more than tidal flats. There were plans into the 20th century to dredge and straighten the creek as a ship canal, but they were abandoned and the center of the creek was filled in for construction of the Belt Parkway before World War II. The western and eastern ends are now peninsulas.

 

Nathan's Famous original hot dog stand opened on Coney Island in 1916 and quickly became a landmark. An annual hot dog eating contest has been held there on July 4 since its opening, but has only attracted broad attention and international television coverage during the last decade.

 

Development on Coney Island has always been controversial. When the first structures were built around the 1840s, there was an outcry to prevent any development on the island and preserve it as a natural park. Starting in the early 1900s, the City of New York made efforts to condemn all buildings and piers built south of Surf Avenue. It was an effort to reclaim the beach which by then had almost completely been built over with bath houses, clam bars, amusements, and other structures. The local amusement community opposed the city. Eventually a settlement was reached where the beach did not begin until 1,000 feet (300 m) south of Surf Avenue, the territory marked by a city-owned boardwalk, while the city would demolish any structures that had been built over public streets, to reclaim beach access.

 

In 1979 the city purchased Steeplechase Park from Fred Trump and proceeded to evict Norman Kaufman's amusements. By this time, Kaufman had expanded his park and had plans to eventually rebuild the historic Steeplechase Park. He had even bought back the original Steeplechase horse ride with plans to install it the following season. But the city decided it did not want to wait decades for Steeplechase park to be rebuilt and believed it could attract a developer to build a large combination theme park and casino on the site. The property remained vacant for another five years.

 

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