Philadelphia: Mummers Fancy Brigades Family Show (January 2018)

My spouse and I attended the Mummers Fancy Brigade Family Show on a Monday morning (New Year’s Day) in January 2018. We purchased our tickets online ahead of time for about $20 per person, but we saw walk-up guests buying tickets on the day of. (We assume that the second show later in the day was more crowded or possibly sold out, because it was when the actual judging occurred, whereas our earlier show was more of a dress rehearsal>) Our tickets arrived in the US mail without any instructions on where to report, other than to the Convention Center. (Note that the Convention Center is huge, spanning several city blocks, and not all entrances were usable for this particular show, so we walked somewhat unproductively along the perimeter of the facility until we found a door that opened.)
This show takes place in a huge warehouse space with temporary bleachers holding seats for viewers. Additional seats are available on the floor closer to the “action”; however, these seats are all at the same elevation, so if you are in a more rear row and you are vertically challenged, you may have difficulty seeing. We had a hard time locating our seats: although each section of the bleachers seemed to contain a directional sign, the placards really marked sponsor lounge areas rather than patron seating sections. Also, we arrived to the show about 20 minutes late, and we feel that other viewers moved to our seats, which were located at the end of a row. In addition, the temperatures were quite cold the day that we visited, and the bleacher seats do not allow for anywhere to store large coats and other cold-weather gear. The ushers were not able to direct us to our seats; instead, they directed us to the floor area where no one was sitting.
The Mummers Parade is held each New Year's Day in Philadelphia, believed to be the oldest folk festival in the United States. A “mummer” is defined as “an actor in a traditional masked mime, especially of a type associated with Christmas and popular in England in the 18th and early 19th centuries.”
Local clubs (usually called "New Years Associations") compete in one of four categories (comics, fancies, string bands, or fancy brigades). They prepare elaborate costumes, performance routines, and moveable scenery, which take months to complete, in their clubhouses in South Philadelphia.
The parade traces back to mid-17th-century roots, blending elements from Swedish, Finnish, Irish, English, German, and other European heritages. Swedes and Finns, the first European colonists in the Philadelphia area, brought the custom of visiting neighbors on "Second Day Christmas" (December 26) with them to Tinicum. This was soon extended through New Year's Day with costumed celebrants loudly parading through the city. They appointed a "speech director", who performed a special dance with a traditional rhyme in exchange for food and ale. It sometimes included shooting firearms on New Year's Day as well as the Pennsylvania German custom of "belsnickling," where adults in disguise questioned children about their behavior during the previous year.
Unable to suppress the sometimes riotous customs, the city government began to require participants to join organized groups with designated leaders who had to apply for permits and were responsible for their group’s actions. The earliest documented club, the Chain Gang, formed in 1840, and Golden Crown first marched in 1876 with cross-town rivals Silver Crown forming soon after. By 1900, these groups formed part of an organized, city-sanctioned parade with cash prizes for the best performances. The parade usually marches on either Broad Street or Market Street. In 1997, the Fancy Brigades were moved to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, allowing for larger sets, but limiting audience size. In 2011, the Fancy Brigades returned to the parade.
Each year, thousands of people participate in the parade, many wearing elaborate costumes costing tens of thousands of dollars to make and weighing well over 100 pounds. The categories of Mummers are described below:
Comics are clowns in colorful outfits, often with multi-level umbrellas who dance to recordings such as "Golden Slippers". The comics typically start the parade. Themes often gently parody current events and traditional life. Prizes are awarded for floats, groups, brigades, couples, original costume, original character, and juvenile. Wench brigades, an offshoot of comics, pride themselves on continuing traditions such as the dress-and-bloomers "suits", painted faces, decorated umbrellas, and live brass bands to accompany the brigade. Wench brigades were originally men dressed as women, although now sometimes include women, too. The fancy division members strut with some small floats in elaborate costumes to music provided by a live band. String bands provide elaborate performances using their unamplified strings, reeds, and percussion, and featuring banjos, saxophones (alto, tenor, baritone and bass), accordions, double basses, drums, glockenspiels, and violins in musical arrangements tied to a theme presented by the captain, beautiful costumes, and props (some people call them “floats”). String-band performances are now the most elaborate of the parade, outdone only by the fancy brigades’ indoor performances.
The fancy brigades, the largest category with the largest crews, march the southernmost portion of the parade route, before heading to the convention center for a ticketed show and judging. Over time, as props grew larger, more cumbersome, and more vulnerable to wind, rain, and snow, the Brigade show was moved indoors.
Fancy brigades clubs include 2nd Street Shooters, Avenuers, Cahills, Clevemore, Downtowners, Golden Crown, Jokers, Satin Slippers, Saturnalian, Spartans, Shooting Stars, and South Philly Vikings.
We were really bowled over by the short less-than-five minute skits that each troupe presented. This show was so impressive; we were completely astonished by the elaborate costumes, intricate sets, talented performers, and well-chosen music. This was our first visit to the show, but it will not be our last!
NOTE: These are NOT my personal photos. Attribution and acknowledgement is given to LRamer from phl.com and others as noted and copyrighted.




















































































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