It costs nearly $100,000 and takes 52 weeks of practice for the Uptown String Band of Middletown to prepare for the annual New Year’s Day Mummers Parade in Philadelphia. It’s a tradition built on family, community, and of course, revelry.
Advertisements
This year, donned with thousands of dollars in instruments, costumes, and props, the Uptown String Band will march 56 of it’s nearly unrecognizable members down Broad Street in honor of one of America’s most deserved heroes, firefighters.
The theme, which Musical Director Thor McLaughlin, 24, says isn’t exactly new, has only been done four times in the history of the parade, and is an ode to the string band’s graceful new practice space.
The Uptown String Band, just this November, transitioned from years of practice in Hulmeville at the William Penn Fire Company, to the outdated, and abandoned hall space belonging to the Parkland Fire Company in Middletown. The department in the township’s Parkland section had been struggling to rent the space since smoking inside public buildings became illegal in the area, ceasing an end to the nightly hosted Bingo attended by locals.
Advertisements
Just a few months ago, the Uptown String Band moved in to the space, completely renovating it, as part of their new five year lease. With just the bathrooms, kitchen, music and costume room lefts to renovate, they’ve started practicing in the main hall multiple times a week and renting it out for special events. Find out more information about Uptown Hall.
“It’s been really nice having a place we can rehearse on any given night that we want,” he said. “There were a lot of Sundays [at William Penn] where we’d be rehearsing and people would be coming in and we’d have to rehearse outside because they’d be booked. It’s been a lot easier for us to not have to worry about stepping on anyone’s toes.”
Advertisements
McLaughlin told LevittownNow.com just minutes before the group’s practice Tuesday night that having free reign of the space has been essential as they’ve prepped for the last few months of this year’s parade. The group is expected to begin working on next year’s parade just a few days after this year’s holiday.
“It all starts on January 2,” McLaughlin said with a chuckle. “That’s when we recover from the day before. But honestly, it starts the Tuesday after New Year’s when we sit down and review footage and scores from the parade. The following Tuesday we immediately begin working on the next year’s theme.”
Advertisements
McLaughlin said submission dates for themes are due in by the first or second week of February, where groups from around the area fight for typical parade themes, like farms or clowns. “It’s a whole process and everyone gets all geared up,” he said. “You can do anything you want, but there’s those themes that everyone likes to do.”
From there, according to McLaughlin, the group takes a month or two and suggests ideas for the theme, laying out ideas for props and costumes. When April comes, the band is getting ready to practice the year’s music, even building props by July or August.
Advertisements
“Literally the day the parade ends, we’re picking it back up. There’s no real break,” he said. “And it’s crazy because you take the first few months to develop your theme, then you take the summer to go to a bunch of parades that raise the money to be able to pay for everything.”
It’s been the rigor or practicing and fundraising that all Mummer’s experience throughout the year that has some participants upset at protests planned for the day of the event. Thousands of protesters are expected to gather at the site of the parade, demanding justice for African Americans shot by police, and those living on less than $15 an hour, in addition to other causes. The protest which is called ‘Justice Rally @ Mummers Parade’ is scheduled to begin 1 p.m. on New Years Day in front of City Hall.
Advertisements
No matter what happens, the Uptown String Band has been playing in the annual Mummers Parade since 1938 and has no plans to stop any time soon.
