LGBT Brigade Expands for 2014 Year’s Mummers Festivities

(L-R) Scott Brown, Director of Tourism for the Fancy Brigade Association; Councilman Mark F. Squilla; Dandy Lion; Crystal Electra; Leo Dignam, Mummers Parade Director; Brittany Lynn; Karen Von Say; Mistress M; Bill Burke, Vice President of the Philadelphia Fancy Brigade Association; and Councilman Jim Kenney at today’s press conference announcing the return of Brittany Lynn and her drag brigade.

Last New Year’s Brittany Lynn and her Drag Mafia made history when they brought drag back to the annual Mummers parade. For the first time since the mid-1980s queens were marching in the lineup down Broad Street and performing in the subsequent Fancy Brigade Finale at the Convention Center. In a press conference today at the Mummers Museum, Lynn – the matriarch of the Mummers LGBT Liaison Committee — announced that she and the ladies will be returning for the 2014 festivities and bringing along a few exciting twists.

“This year we will leading the parade,” she says. “And instead of stopping at City Hall, we will be one of the first groups to perform at the A-Stand,” the coveted preferred-seating area that hosts some of the best Mummers acts — and catches the attention of local news outlets. “We will be one of the first televised groups,” she tells me.

Perhaps the biggest news of the year, however, is that the LGBT portion of the event is expanding to be more inclusive of the entire community. In addition to the 11 drag queens stomping down Broad, there will be six drag kings and a bevy of transgender performers. Among those marching will be queens Satine Harlow, Morgan Wells and Karen Vonsay; drag kings Dandy Lion, Timmy Tenderloin; and Liberty City Kings Drag and Burlesque glitter puss Lascivious Jane.

You can catch the LGBT delegation at three performance spots along the route: Broad and Washington, near the Gayborhood at Broad and Pine, and at the A-Stand at City Hall. Then they will join the masses at the Convention Center for the Fancy Brigade Finale, where the 11 queens will duke it out to claim the title of Miss Fancy Brigade 2014.

More information and tickets can be found here.