Brigading back to Broad

For the first time in five years, Vince Buono and the other 68 members of the South Philly Vikings will strut their stuff up Broad Street — or at least part of it — on New Year’s Day.

The dozen other fancy brigades will join them — this after the division’s 13 clubs bowed out of the traditional route last year due to "logistical" reasons.

"The brigades are really excited to be back in the parade, and they think it will be a great parade," said Fancy Brigade spokesperson Christine Cleaver Harrer.

Indeed, there will be plenty of elaborate costumes on Broad Street come Jan. 1, but don’t look for any festooned floats — those won’t be part of the Fancy Brigade division’s modified Broad Street jaunt from Oregon to Washington avenues.

Harrer said the absence of floats shouldn’t dampen spectators’ spirits, however, because ever since the brigades moved into the Pennsylvania Convention Center in 1996, they’ve kept their floats strictly indoors. In lieu of wheeled setups, brigade members will perform walking drills.

"Instead of walking by the crowds, they’ll have a dance choreographed to allow them to move down the street, so it will be a really neat effect," said Harrer.

The 2005 strut will mark the first time since 2000 that all four Mummers divisions — fancy brigades, fancies, comics and string bands — will parade up 14th Street. Three of the divisions returned to the traditional route last year after marching four consecutive years on Market Street.

"The parade originated on Broad Street and it should always be on Broad Street," said the Vikings’ Buono. "Speaking for me and my club, we’re ecstatic to be on Broad Street. We can’t wait to see our families, friends and fans."

For many South Philadelphians, relinquishing the parade to Center City was a sorrowful — and inconvenient — break with a New Year custom.

"This is a tradition that should not have been broken," said Karen Pasquarello, of the 900 block of Federal Street.

Pasquarello, her husband and their two children would wake up early on parade day and walk the five short blocks to Broad Street to watch the fanciful spectacle. When the Mummers moved to Market, the family didn’t follow.

The move became controversial among local residents who felt the Mummers were shunning their roots in favor of prize money and TV contracts. But Mummer officials, pointing to sparsely populated stretches of Broad Street during the parade, maintained they favored the move in 2000 in hopes of attracting larger crowds.

The only other time the Mummers took to Market in their century-long history was in 1995, when the Avenue of the Arts was under construction.

In the summer of 2003, the strutters announced they were returning to Broad Street — minus the fancy brigades. Harrer said the brigades market to tour groups early in the year and that it was too late by last year’s decision to make the move, despite brigade officials’ agreement.

"They were in support of going to Broad Street, but logistically they were not able to," she said.

Tom Fox, the Recreation Department official who oversees the planning and staging of the parade, said the brigades expressed their desire to return to the traditional route just after last year’s march.

In the ensuing months, officials made plans to move the brigades’ indoor performances at the Convention Center back one hour from the previous 4 p.m. start time to allow for the Broad Street strut.

"Moving it to 5 accommodated this wish to have some march on Broad Street," Fox said. "It looks like it will accomplish all the ideas and wishes of all four divisions."

The fancy brigades also perform at the Convention Center at noon, after which buses will shuttle them to Broad and Oregon, where they will follow the string bands in marching order, Fox said. The brigades then will hop a bus at Broad and Washington to get back in time for the 5 p.m. show.

"We were very pleased with what they came back with," Fox said of the plan. "We certainly want to repeat the great success of the parade in 2004. And, if everything works out, it looks like that will happen again."

Broad Street was always a lucky charm for the five-time first-place Vikings, Buono said.

"We win on Broad Street. We haven’t won in the Convention Center. The closest we came is second," the strutter noted.

Groups are judged at the parade’s finishing point, City Hall, for originality, best theme and costume.

The brigades’ marching order, starting around 1 p.m., will be Cahill, Clevemore, Satin Slippers, Saturnalian, Downtowners, Avenuers, Golden Crown, Jokers, Second Street Shooter/Strutters, Vikings and Shooting Stars.

Last year, WB-17 signed a three-year contract to televise the parade.