The Festival of Many Colors on May 17 marks a new chapter for the Mummers

Racist and otherwise insensitive Mummers costumes stretch back to the origins of the parade in debauchery and minstrelsy over 300 years ago. Blackface hasn’t been seen at the parade since a notorious 2020 incident in which then-Mayor Kenney threatened to shut the parade down for good, but a litany of mandatory cultural sensitivity training sessions has not stemmed other forms of racial impersonation, from questionable “Day of the Dead” themes to unadulterated yellowface.

Meet the Festival of Many Colors

Today, however, at least one Mummers club is doing things differently. Rather than impersonate the cultures of non-white Philadelphians, the renowned Golden Sunrise NYA (New Years Association) has connected with their homegrown cultural organizations and invited them to become Mummers themselves. Collaborations and friendships with groups including Kaos Más Caribbean Carnival troupe, the Mexican folklorico group Danza Tonantzin, and the Positive Movement Entertainment Drumline (PME) AKA “Philly Elmo” have grown beyond marching together on New Year’s. Now, the groups will join the inaugural Festival of Many Colors.

Alongside food, crafts, and children’s activities, the festival’s packed schedule includes performances from the award-winning Mummers string band Quaker City; the Philadelphia Pan Stars, a local Caribbean steel pan orchestra; and Banda La Poblanita and Danza Tonantzin, representing the Mexican Carnaval tradition.

“The goal is to have a destination for members of all three of these communities, as well as members of the general public to experience the celebration, the joy, and the commonalities between our three traditions,” says Mike Carwile, the secretary of Golden Sunrise and a board member of the Mummers Museum.

A meaningful moment to celebrate

This cultural and intercultural celebration is particularly meaningful at this moment: it’s the second year in a row that organizers have cancelled the Philadelphia Carnaval de Puebla, the East Coast’s largest Cinco de Mayo festival, which typically draws 15,000 participants, due to fears that it will targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"This is something new to the community,” says Olga Renteria, a cultural events organizer for Philadelphia’s Mexican community (“Puebladelphia”). “Some people are still worried, saying, ‘Don’t do this. You’re going to get people in trouble.’ Others are saying, ‘Come on, let’s celebrate one time.’” Some have also shared concerns that teaching non-Mexicans about Carnaval music, dancing, and costume crafting could worsen cultural appropriation and dilute their traditions, but Renteria sees it differently. “This is what I do, as an interpreter and translator. I have learned to teach my community how we can share our traditions and our culture, but still keep them. It’s still ours, and we’re not giving it away.”

“I get to hug my culture.”

It’s the youngest generation, Renteria observes, who is most excited about sharing their culture. “I feel really proud that our children are feeling proud. It’s a weird difference, because of what many of their parents are going through, with ICE in this new administration. But the children are saying, ‘I was born here. And I get to hug my culture. I get to show off.’” This next generation of carnavaleros are “taking over Carnaval de Puebla,” some coming to Philadelphia from as far as Chicago and California to participate in Sunday’s festival.

“I was brought to the United States when I was eight years old,” Renteria says. “I never went back to Mexico. I feel American, but I also feel Mexican. And when I see people gathering to celebrate three different communities, and three different cultures… I get chills. Because we’re not what people say. We’re unifying these communities.”

New hope for the future

For Golden Sunrise—the last remaining Fancy Division Mummers Club, renowned for their giant, colorful costumes and floats—connecting with other communities and cultures has offered new hope for the future. Jesa Stiglich, the club’s president, says despite their legacy, the association has “also struggled quite a bit. Especially when we became the only fancy club left, we had to ask, how can we get people on the street?” They’ll play Mummers classics like “Golden Slippers”, but there are new sounds, too: “When we brought Kaos in, now all of a sudden we have a DJ going down the street, and the excitement that Caribbean Carnival brings. Then we brought in Philly Elmo and PME, which is such a part of Philly lore, and who brought the rhythm of a drumline … With each inclusion there’s just so much more energy.”

“I'm the type of person that I treat a person the way how they treat me,” says Tony Payne, the CEO of Kaos Mas. “We didn’t experience any kind of negativity,” he says. “If I had experienced it, I would have addressed it. When we went to Golden Sunrise, they welcomed us.”

“I’m very intrigued and excited to see how everything plays out,” says Danielle Mellanson, the President of United Caribbean Associations of Philadelphia, “and to see all the entities and what they have to offer come together in one space.”

“Just as this country has changed a lot in the last 250 years and will continue to change into the future, we see the same happening in Mummery,” says Carwile. “It’s a collaboration where we’re getting to expose people to what we do,” adds Payne, who hopes that the Caribbean performances on May 17 encourage people to join in with Philadelphia Carnival, later this year on June 20 in Fairmount Park.

“If we can get fans of those two different groups kind of bopping along and jamming to each other’s music, and hopefully striking up a conversation, maybe it can be more than a one-day affair,” Carwile says, “something that is one more step in building a relationship between Philadelphia neighbors.”

“There have been people who have felt excluded from Mummery, as well as people who never knew that it was open to anyone who shows up,” he continues. This festival is a new way to open up that door. “We want to say, Mummery is for Philadelphia. Mummery is for you.”