Mummers go south in 2015

The 115th edition of the "official," city-overseen Mummers Parade (it had been spontaneous and disorganized before that) yesterday returned to its disorganized roots, which left a lot of people - Mummers, fans and city officials alike - wondering, "How did that happen?"

For the first time in 115 years the Mummers broke with tradition and marched south on Broad, starting with judging at City Hall, and ending with a performance at Carpenter, which turned out to be the best place to see the parade. Why? Best sight lines, portable toilets, bleachers and food vendors on the ground of the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. (Next best spot: The firehouse just above Fitzwater.)

Another first was the interspersing of Fancy Brigades with string bands south of City Hall, after the brigades finished their first show at the Convention Center. Another first were two divisions - Fancies and Wenches - being on Broad Street at the same time. That wasn't, as you say, planned.

The plan, according to city parade director Leo Dignam, was for the Wenches to assemble at Washington Avenue at 9 a.m., strut (or stagger) up Broad Street, clearing it by 10 a.m., when the Fancies were to cakewalk down, after being judged.

Prior to the parade, Dignam told me his greatest fear was "communication problems," such as organizers not communicating with their people. Some Wenches showed up late. About half the Wench brigades, Dignam said, declined to march back down Broad because "they said part of their tradition, after being judged, they visit bars in Center City and didn't want to go south again."

A quick aside to the Mummer haters: Yes, the Wenches drink and have no visible game plan when it comes to performing other than to joke and flirt with spectators and rush the TV booth. They are there for f-u-n, and they are the only Mummers division that is growing.

Some participants in the Comic Division have been known to raise a toast.

But the parade's glamour performers, the string bands, are deadly serious and sober, as are the Fancies. Those who characterize the parade as a drunken brawl are either misinformed - or lying for their own reasons.

Communication between the parade and some fans failed, too, as evidenced by a goodly crowd at Broad and Pine, a popular performance place for decades, but removed this year. In 2015, there were full performances at City Hall, at Sansom (the Union League) and Carpenter. But the last two weren't truly full because the Mummers left their backdrops and large props after the City Hall judging. Fans at the Union League and Carpenter saw a leaner version than what the judges saw.

Crowds in Center City were healthy, compared with recent years, and this fan says we need more performance points. Having only three created knots at those points, and stretches in between that were light on fans.

The city promised 10-minute intervals between string bands, and that worked at City Hall, but not farther down Broad. Later in the day it worked great at Carpenter, where brigades filled in gaps between string bands.

Speaking of gaps, and I must, there was an inexplicable gap about 3 p.m. and another at 5 p.m., both south of South. Speaking to cops and marshals, I learned that a lot of fixes were being made on the fly.

The early disorganization - with Wenches heading north and Fanciers heading south - seemed to be a big crowd pleaser, giving everyone something to look at.

As for the Mummers themselves, I spoke to nearly every string-band captain and found reaction to be mostly positive, but mixed and wary.

Only one - Pennsport's Charlie Nicholas - gave me a thumb's down. "I'm a South Philadelphian and I'm a traditionalist and I didn't like it." He also said "crowds were lighter than I've ever seen," but that wasn't my observation.

Uptown has the distinction of being the first string band to ever parade down Broad Street and captain Ryan Radcliffe told me he liked it.

Despite some logistical glitches at the start - mentioned by many - he said the "crowds were awesome" and he liked the freedom of leaving the props behind. The idea is to "give the parade back to the people and the people back to the parade."

Greater Overbrook's "Will Bill" Razzano said he liked the idea of reinventing the parade, but would have liked more drills before being judged. On the other hand, Durning's Joe Pomente said he liked being judged at the jump, "when you're not that tired."

Also not feeling the pressure of judging was South Philadelphia's Denny Palandro, who said his members threw beads to the crowds and were able to interact with fans more than in the past.

Aqua's Ken Maminski "loved it" and Greater Kensington's Harry Bradley said "it was a lot more fun." Speaking for several others, Polish American's Nick Magenta said it "felt a little different" and it did permit photo ops with fans.

In summary, there were logistical problems, communication problems, organizational problems, it was kind of confusing, kind of a mess and I kind of liked it.

The new tradition is a work in progress.