The Coney Island Mermaid Parade Crowns This Year’s King and Queen

By Michael Gonik

In case you missed the memo, the Coney Island Mermaid Parade is locked, loaded, and officially a go for (at least) one more year. And as we approach its annual takeover of Surf Avenue and the boardwalk, the annual summer-starter has unveiled its latest appointments to the honorary royal court.

This year’s “King Neptune” will be NYC rocker Jesse Malin, and his “Queen Mermaid” is none other than the Duchess of Coolsville herself, Rickie Lee Jones. Malin and Jones succeed lifetime punker Eugene Hütz and Queenie Sateen as the regal duo presiding over the neighborhood-wide procession. Though their roles are purely ceremonial, the king and queen do serve one crucial function in the parade: getting rolled out to the beach in a wicker chariot to signal the official, city-approved start of swimming season (however unlikely it is that anyone actually waits that long).

Nonetheless, it’s a promising sign and a welcome return to normalcy, following the parade’s very public financial struggle over the last year. Its upcoming 44th installment was at risk of capsizing only a few months ago, when Coney Island USA, the non-profit organization behind the event, launched a GoFundMe campaign to keep it afloat. Thanks to the collective efforts of generations of mermaids, mermen, merthems, and an additional pledge of sustained city funding from Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, the parade is, for now, treading on as planned on June 20.

Floats will line up at the corner of West 23rd and Surf Avenue, marching towards the New York City Aquarium, hitting a sharp right at the Cyclone to carry the party down the boardwalk and towards the pier for a grand finale, at which point we anticipate many a participant hitting the good old Atlantic for a swim.