Man, what CAN you say? As Dorothy says.. You're not in Kansas any more, Toto. This parade rivals Key West's Fantasy Fest, and Seattle's Summer Solstice Parade. CLOTHING OPTIONAL, WILD & WACKY RULE.
They say a picture is worth a 1000 words.
Seriously, our observations are: I stood next to "Linda", who has lived in Brooklyn all her life, she comes to the parade every year, and is quite proud of the tradition. We were struck by the masses of people. Don't know the count, but must have been couple thousand people there. We remarked that we're not sure we've ever been in a crowd that large. It was pretty ethnic - working class - we saw a stereotypical "Brooklyn Guy" - he was in his white "wife beater" tee with his wife and mom at his side. We asked a guy standing beside us if the police would do anything about drinking beer on the street. He said "They won't bust your balls as long as you're standing by the parade route". Coney Island is pretty scumy. The beach is WIDE and it was PACKED--literally wall to wall people. But you got a great breeze, there's a boardwalk, and it was Americana only as Coney Islanders can do.
