A Complete Waste of Space

Polish-American won the viewers choice, and was the closest to the classic Philadelphia Mummers, but Fralinger String Band won the over all contest.
2010 Polish American String Band "The Jokers Ball"
Fralinger String Band 2010 "Feudin, Fussin, and Fightin" at city hall

I've never found anyone, outside of the area, that has a clue what that parade is about. Saw it in person on 3 New Year's Days(a lot of fun back in the day, sort of depressingly deserted in South Philly these days).
My daughter and I used to watch the string bands every year. A sort of wierd event, overall, especially the comic division. Uniquely Philly, both good and bad.



p.s. aside: once, back in 1988, a musician buddy from Roxborough and I lobbied real hard, and nearly succeeded, in convincing Hunter Thompson to come east and do a piece on the Mummers. Old Hunter might have been able to do that parade justice. In a moment of mean-spiritedness, I once described it to a southern friend as what Mardi Gras would be if the Nazis had won the war......