The King Mango Strut is an annual satirical parade held in

Coconut Grove, Florida Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as The Grove, is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The neighborhood is roughly bound by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, Sou ...

. Founded by Glenn Terry and Bill Dobson in 1982, it is held on the last Sunday of each year. The parade, which uses the motto "Putting the 'nut' in Coconut Grove", is composed of floats mocking local and national stories from the previous year.

History

The King Mango Strut was started in 1982 by Glenn Terry and Bill Dobson as a parody of the annual

King Orange Jamboree Parade The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

for the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

. After Terry and Dobson's group, the Mango Marching Band, was denied entry into the King Orange Jamboree Parade due to their use of kazoos, conch shells, and garbage can drums as instruments, the pair held their own parade, with an initially by simply marking the ends of a street with signs. In 2009 Glenn Terry and group treasurer Antoinette Baldwin got into a public dispute over the creative direction of the Strut, which culminated in the city choosing Baldwin to run the event, and Terry refusing to march in the parade in protest. The parade is now run by King Mango Productions, a non-profit organization headed by Mike Lucas. The Strut was on hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic and is resuming for 2022 on January 8, 2023.http://kingmangostrut.org/event-info/

Overview

The parade lampoons both local and national figures and issues. In 1986, the parade included a group of people dressed as members of the sex and drug trades, calling themselves the "

Biscayne Boulevard U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) in Florida runs along the state's east coast from Key West to its crossing of the St. Marys River (Florida/Georgia), St. Marys River into Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia north of Boulogne, Florida, Boulogne and south of ...

Chamber of Commerce". In 1996 several floats poked fun at the

City of Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at t ...

's debt crisis, including a mock auction of city buildings. In 1997 and 2000, floats mocked the area's history of voting irregularities, with the latter year focusing on the issues the state faced during the 2000 presidential election. There is no stringent entry process for participants. Simply showing up to a meeting and announcing a desire to participate is enough. In one case, a group showed up on the day of the event, with no prior notice, and was allowed to march with the parade. The Miami chapter of the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

has participated since 1988, and a local

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna may refer to: * International Society for Krishna Consciousness The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known Colloquialism, colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnav ...

group is also a long time participant.

References

External links

King Mango Strut - Official Site
{{coord missing, Miami Festivals in Florida Parades in the United States Culture of Miami Tourist attractions in Miami Coconut Grove (Miami) 1982 establishments in Florida Recurring events established in 1982