In Philadelphia, New Year’s Day means one thing: the famous Mummers Parade. Every year, nearly 10,000 people strut their best through the city in what is the nation’s oldest folk parade. Since 1901, the local clubs and string bands of mummers put on performances and play music as they march through the city.
Whether it is your first mummers parade or your 50th, here’s everything you need to know to attend this year’s parade, plus a few of our favorite tips to get the most out of your experience.
What’s a Mummer?
The tradition of “mummery” dates to the 1700s when German-Swedish immigrants brought the post-Christmas tradition to America. Mummers, groups of lower-class workers, would go door-to-door asking for money and booze, like a kind of adult trick-or-treating.
The tradition has evolved into neighborhood or interest-based organizations or social clubs. These groups meet throughout the year putting on fundraisers and planning their customs or skits.
Mummers are divided into 5 types or divisions. The parade is divided into 5 divisions or types of mummer: Comic Clubs, Wench Brigades, Fancy Division, Fancy Brigades, and String Bands. Here’s what makes each of them unique:
Comic Clubs: These groups are the more classical Mummers, often poking fun of news or current events, or imitating pop culture with short. In recent years, Barbie has been a frequent mummer as is the perennial favorite, Rocky Balboa.
Wench Brigades: Once part of the Comics, the Wenches portray funny, central themes. Most often, it involves men dressing as women.
Fancy Division: These groups have incredibly elaborate costumes that often take hundreds of hours to stitch together by hand.
String Bands: If you ask someone about the mummers, they’ll probably tell you about the string bands. These groups of musically inclined performers strut down Broad performing songs on many different instruments (not just strings). Horns and drums have become increasingly popular!
Fancy Brigades: This is an off-shoot of the Fancy Division. Their costumes are so elaborate that they don’t actually walk the parade route. Instead, they perform a 4-5 minute skit inside the Convention Center (tickets required and can be purchased from the Philadelphia Visitor Center).
Date and Time
The 125th Mummers Parade will begin at 9:00am on January 1st. The parade usually lasts until around 5:00pm.
After the parade, there is a street party in the Pennsport neighborhood along South 2nd Street (called “Two Street”). The street party officially goes until 10:00pm, where it usually heads indoors at local club houses, restaurants, bars and even private homes continuing into the early morning hours.
Parade Route
The parade route starts west of City Hall and travels from 17th and Market to City Hall, where the brigades and bands put on performances for the judges. This is also where the TV crews capture the parade for broadcast. There’s a small VIP and handicapped accessible area here.
The main route (and where everyone goes to see it) is along Broad Street from City Hall to Washington Street. There are three performance areas along Broad where the brigades and bands pause to act out their scenes. The performance areas are at Sansom (in front of Union League), at Pine Street and Carpenter Street, but really anywhere along Broad is great. The further south you go, the thinner the crowds.
From Broad and Washington, the parade heads east into the Pennsport neighborhood for the raucous all-night party and the costumes are largely abandoned.
Best Viewing Spots and Tips
The best viewing spot is also the most crowded: Sansom Street in front of the Union League. Some people start arriving early and the crowds build until just after noon when the String Bands arrive. By that time expect crowds 4-5 people deep. Why is this the best? You can see the bands with the iconic City Hall in the background.
You can catch the parade anywhere, but you really want to be near one of the performance areas for when the String Bands come through. Second best is around Pine Street for a more subdued crowd.
Pro tip: Along Broad Street, the West side is slightly better than the East side. Along the East side of the street, the police use the eastern lane for emergencies.
Also, be prepared to wait and experience long gaps in the parade. Some of these gaps are for TV coverage/filming as well as breaks needing for the judging. But some are caused by a bit of disorganization and the rather extreme levels of intoxication of some groups. Bring your patience. You can also grab an early lunch in Midtown Village and saunter over to Broad to see the the latter part of the parade. The String Bands usually start their strut after noon.
Getting There
Most people will travel by car to the parade. The best places to park are in the garages near the Pennsylvania Convention Center or in the Old City area. The route is easily accessible by public transit. The SEPTA Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines will get you to the parade and the PATCO station at Broad Street is also open. However, please note there will be massive disruptions to the SEPTA bus routes all day on January 1st.
If you are driving into the city, take note that several days before the parade (usually on December 29th), the city starts closing streets and instituting parking restrictions. Basically, in the staging area around 15th and Arch and Ranstead Streets. Beginning on December 31st, pretty much all streets around City Hall will be closed.
Since the parade travels down Broad Street, ALL cross streets will be closed. That means you will not be able to cross Broad Street all day on January 1st. Cars will need to travel north of City Hall or south of Washington Street.
Basically, don’t plan to travel anywhere in Midtown on January 1st by either car or bus.
Television Coverage
If you don’t want to fight the crowds or if there is bad weather, never fear. You can watch the parade from the comfort of your own home. The parade is scheduled to be broadcast on 6ABC’s sister station, The Localish Network on January 1, 2025 at 8:00pm. It is also available on-demand on 6ABC.com and the streaming apps Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Google TV and Roku.
A Final Word…
There’s been a lot of controversy and media coverage over the years about the parade and whether it should be cancelled forever as a relic of the past. So much so that we skipped on the parade for nearly 20 years based on these controversies. That said, the Mummers Parade is a cultural institution in the city and we’re glad we finally went.
What about the racist problems? And is the parade safe? In a word, yes. The parade is very safe. All of the problems (wearing blackface, racist chants, hitting spectators, and throwing beer on young children in ‘beer baptisms’) is perpetrated by a single group. And the problems are very, very isolated. You should feel very safe attending. Why parade organizers (and the city) continue to allow this one group to participate is a topic for a whole different article.
