Preparations underway for 2024 Mummers Parade in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Preparations for Monday's Mummers Parade are underway in Center City. The city has already begun setting up seating and fencing along Broad Street, and several brigades gathered at the Pennsylvania Convention Center Thursday night to practice.
"A lot of clubs are practicing an hour and a half to three hours a night, with their props, with their floats, trying to get their floor and footing down ... so that come January 1, it's a seamless transition for them," Anthony Stagliano Jr. said.
"Right now I'm painting, we have two painters in our club, myself, I'm a tattoo artist and my cousin, Daniel Duffy, who's an art teacher," Christian Hicks, of Jokers NYA, said.
Mummers were hard at work practicing choreography and constructing sets.
Clubs in five divisions have come up with themes for the parade and will perform for crowds and judges on New Year's Day.
"It's tradition, it's so fun," Hicks said. "For me, it was my first creative outlet, when I was younger, coming up the themes and ideas, the paint, so it really struck a nerve in me and just have to keep going since."
READ MORE: Younger generation excited to continue Mummers Parade tradition (from 2022)
With the big event only a few days away, excitement is in the air.
"A lot of excitement, probably a lot of nerves. I would say that most people are eager," Stagliano said.
And what does it feel like to be a Mummer in Philadelphia on Jan. 1?
"It's the payoff, it's everything that you did all year long," Hicks said. "It's worth it. Win or lose, you put on a good show that everyone's going to watch and entertain people. And it's just a lot of camaraderie and just being proud of the product that we were able to put on the show."
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