Mummers 2008
If there were to be one defining event held in Philly each year, it's gotta be the Mummers Parade. How in the hell does one explain a Mummer to a person who hasn't seen the parade up close and personal? It's sort of like Carnival. It's sort of like Mardi Gras. It's sort of like NY's Puerto Rican Day Parade. It's sort of like St. Patrick's Day Parade. And nothing like them all at the same time.
This year's Mummers Parade started after a three hour delay. I was well on my way to NY for family stuff in the pouring rain, but after getting back, I noticed the parade was still trickling on up Broad St well after 9p. I ran home, grabbed my gear and took photos at Broad/Sansom for a couple of hours of the last few groups. It was quite interesting shooting the parade at night. Quite a different scene from last year's one week delayed and hot enough for shorts parade.
After about 5 hours of driving, 6 hours of family time and 2+ hours in the freezing cold shooting dem golden slippers, I'm beat. A flickr set of 30 [unedited] shots.
More of my shots from the 2008 Mummers Parade with some descriptions in the next post.
More Mummers photos from Brad, A Bryce, Prof. Jas. Mundie, Shari DeAngelo, Okaypro, Fen Branklin, evinglenside. I'm looking forward to seeing more shots from around the way and especially Zoe Strauss's helping of photos. But she's headed to Seattle for a gallery talk.
Explore posts in the same categories: Art, Events, Photography
January 2nd, 2008 @ 10:59 am
You got there at the right time, I think they saved the best for last. I like your confetti streamer photo. HughE
January 2nd, 2008 @ 2:38 pm
nice pics. the problem for me is the slowness of the parade — either you have to be willing to put in a long day, or you're only going to see one or two troops actually do their stuff, since most of the time they're just waiting for the review stands…
January 3rd, 2008 @ 9:38 am
There is no doubt the parade isn't as spectator friendly as it could be, but thats just part of the deal, you have to make a committement to really see the good parts. My family just watches the stringbands, we were out there for about 4-5 hours, it was so awesome and very fun to pick our favorites and compare it to the official winners the next day. Also, you have to go over to 2nd street for the unofficial mummers, they march again down into south philly starting at the mummers museum…people are totally loaded and its quite a scene, a true philly-culture experience.