A
satirical parade held each year in
Miami near the time of the
Junior Orange Bowl Parade, featuring people dressed as
politicians,
celebrities, and other
newsworthy people or things.
The brainchild of Glen Terry, this annual gathering of freaks, weirdos, and some really strange folks has been strutting its stuff since 1982. Organizers of the Orange Bowl parade wouldn't let him march, so he got a few friends to form a marching band. They marched through downtown Coconut Grove playing kazoos.
I've participated in several Struts, most recently a few years ago as part of a float parodying local mudslinging politicians -- who were literally slinging mud at each other in the back of my father's pickup truck. I appeared on the front page of the Miami Herald the next day, using my shovel to clean up after them (as a courtesy to the floats behind us, and to the city of Coconut Grove).
Despite the name, the King Mango Strut does not have a king (as parades sometimes do). It has, instead, a queen -- a drag queen who's getting up there in years, and who waves to the crowd from the back of a convertible.
The King Mango Strut takes place on the first Sunday after Christmas.