I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to paint The Mermaid Parade marching banners since 2021! I also get to turn talented people into mermaids. This year I created banners for King Jesse Malin and Queen Rickie Lee Jones. Grab your fins and join us for a day of fun in the sun!

Since 1983, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and visitors from across the country — and around the world — have headed to the Coney Island shore for Coney Island USA’s annual Mermaid Parade.

Inspired by the Coney Island Mardi Gras parades of old, the Mermaid Parade was transformed by its participants into a new kind of community celebration. By the late 1980s, it was at the top of every list of “must-do” things in New York, and is, without question, the official opening of summer in the city. 

Go to Coneyisland.com for more information.

Poster design by Erin Mathewson