Mummers, city consider future of the parade

This year’s budget crisis led Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to make some unpopular decisions. One of those affected the 20,000 mummers and the crowds that turn out and tune in to watch the parade on New Year’s Day. The city cut funding for the parade by several hundreds of thousands of dollars and forced the parade to stick to a tighter timeframe. Though private funding stepped in at the 11th hour, the funding future for the parade is uncertain. From WHYY’s Arts and Culture desk, Alex Schmidt takes a look at what this could mean for the Philadelphia institution.

This year’s budget crisis led Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to make some unpopular decisions. One of those affected the 20,000 mummers and the crowds that turn out and tune in to watch the parade on New Year’s Day. The city cut funding for the parade by several hundreds of thousands of dollars and forced the parade to stick to a tighter timeframe. Though private funding stepped in at the 11th hour, the funding future for the parade is uncertain. From WHYY’s Arts and Culture desk, Alex Schmidt takes a look at what this could mean for the Philadelphia institution. [audio: arts20090108mummers.mp3]