Deidre Schoo for The New York Times The Coney Island Mermaid Parade in 2010.What do Amanda Palmer, Abel Ferrara, Alt-Variety Magazine and Insectavora, the fire-eating tattooed lady, have in common? All of them will join forces on Saturday night at a fundraising benefit to support this year's endangered Mermaid Parade in Coney Island.
Since 1983, the parade has transformed the Coney Island boardwalk into a honky-tonk beauty pageant of bikini-clad sea-females (of various genders). This year, it is scheduled for June 22 but because of rising costs and because the headquarters organizers, Coney Island USA - the folks who run the local circus sideshow - were badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy, the event is in jeopardy of being canceled.
At the beginning of May, the sideshow started a Kickstarter campaign with the hope of raising $100,000 for the parade. By the end of last week, they had received more than 80 percent of that sum. To help them reach their goal, Ms. Palmer, a multi-media artist formerly of the punk-cabaret band the Dresden Dolls, announced that she would host the Saturday night benefit from 7 to 11 p.m., on May 25, at the Bowery Ballroom on Delancey Street.
“This parade means so much to the NYC performer community, and I'd be devastated to see it defeated and washed away,†Ms. Palmer wrote in a press release. “This night will be a beautiful collision of helping and celebration and I can't wait to be among the people.†She added that she planned to show up in a mermaid outfit and “hopefully learn some mermaid-appropriate songs on the ukulele.â€
Tickets are available at coneyisland.com. For more on the Kickstarter campaign, go to savemermaids.org.
