Mummers Parade

If the weather outside is too frightful, or you simply hit the champagne too hard on New Year's Eve to face Broad Street, local TV has you covered throughout the New Year's weekend. CBS3 will broadcast live from Penn's Landing on Friday night to show off the fireworks. From 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., Channel 3 airs "Celebrate 2011," with parts of the show dedicated to highlighting the major events in news, sports and entertainment from 2010; performances from Disney on Ice's "Toy Story 3"; and a dance routine by the SugarHouse Sweeties.

WHAT KIND of guy swaddles his infant son in sequins and carries his sparkly, innocent little bundle up Broad Street amid the PG debauchery of the Wench Brigades? In the case of Chalie McKenna, it's a guy who loves the Mummers Parade with his entire being - a guy who, when he dies, wants to be buried in his Riverfront Wench Brigade gear - and who loves his son maybe a thousand times more than he loves even his beloved parade. McKenna's son, also Chalie without the "r" (it's a South Philly thing)

So what does it cost to strut? In this year's Mummers Parade, the answer is $75,222.23. That's the estimate of total expenses parade organizers must pay the city to hold their 111th annual New Year's Day event - and it's far less than it would have cost if organizers had to pay for police overtime. Last year's estimate of city services totaled $347,000, but the Mummers did not have to pay most of it because the city made special arrangements after the Mummers argued they had too little notice of the city's new policy requiring parade organizers to start paying the city for police and cleanup services.

The City of Philadelphia has announced one of its new year's resolutions - a more family-friendly Mummers extravaganza. Think more bathrooms and a new performance spot along Broad Street. In unveiling details of the 111th Mummers Parade - to take place, fittingly, on 1/1/11 - city officials Wednesday also pledged to move the annual Mummers String Band Show of Shows to Philadelphia from Atlantic City, where it has been held for years. That way, older Philadelphians who cannot withstand the typical January weather will get a chance to watch the Mummers live.

U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, philanthropist H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, and cheesesteak baron Joey Vento on Wednesday made good on their promise to pay the city's setup and cleanup costs for 10 parades and festivals. With a check for $200,000 and an additional $100,000 pledged for 2012, the Greater Philadelphia Traditions Fund will not only pay parade costs through 2012, it will include reimbursement for expenses in 2009 and 2010. "This is a very important day for us," said Michael Blichasz, an organizer of the Pulaski Day parade and celebration of Polish culture.

With negotiations between City Council and Mayor Nutter over the city's funding for ethnic parades and community events at an impasse, City Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez said she would try to override Nutter's veto of her bill requiring the city to pick up all police costs for the events. Sánchez's bill, which would have required the city to pay for future security and crowd-control costs as well as retroactive costs for 2009 events, passed Council by a vote of 15-2 last month.

With tempers still flaring over Mayor Nutter's decision to stop using city dollars to cover the cost of parades and street festivals, one event has been quietly allowed to get a free ride: Welcome America, the nonprofit group that is host to Philadelphia's Fourth of July party. In the days after last year's celebration of the nation's birth, Welcome America's executive director vowed to repay City Hall $300,000 for crowd control, cleanup, and police and emergency-medical services. That commitment was in keeping with a new and controversial administration policy that requires organizers of the Mummers Parade, the St. Patrick's Day Parade, and other traditional events to absorb the costs for city services.

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER The money is in the bank for the Mummers and nine other parades and events in Philadelphia. Cable magnate H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest will give $500,000 to the Greater Philadelphia Traditions Fund, a new nonprofit that will help the groups pay for what the city charges parades and festivals for use of streets, police, cleanup, and other costs, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) announced Wednesday. Brady said he believed residents equated the parades and festivals with Philadelphia's identity.

OVER THE last few years, the police have been kicking us Mummers off 2nd Street earlier and earlier. When it was a family thing, there was little trouble, but as more outsiders came out to the best-kept secret in Philadelphia, they started trouble and forced police to act. Stu Bykofsky's column telling people to bring a carful of friends and park under I-95just brings more problems. Broad Street is for performances and entertainment of others. When we strut down 2nd, it's for our families.

A herd of winged pigs wielded tiny white umbrellas. A helmeted Norse warrior pranced down the street, a 75-pound contraption of steel tubes and bright feathers strapped to his back. A squadron of saxophonists marched in formation, with toilet plungers jutting above their heads. Where else but Broad Street in Philadelphia on New Year's Day? The rain disappeared just in time for the annual Mummers Parade yesterday, providing an extra-sunny sparkle to row upon row of sequined costumes.