The mermaids Are Back.
The Sleepy Hollow Mermaid Festival is back for its second year on Saturday, July 19, and this time around, the festival organizers are preparing for even bigger crowds. This family-friendly event drew thousands in costume to Kingsland Point Park last year as part of the Village of Sleepy Hollow’s 150th Anniversary celebrations.
“We loved creating a new tradition in Sleepy Hollow,” says festival co-producer Megan Isenstadt of the Sleepy Hollow Project. “It’s Halloween in July.”
Along with a costume parade at 1pm, there will be free art-making activities with Arts Westchester Art Mobile and Strawtown Studios, a Little Mermaid puppet show from Little Genii puppet theater, and Cumbia for Kids from Folklore Urbano NYC. For the older crowd, local acts the Mom Band, Anti-Noun, and Merman will perform.
While mermaids and pirate make for a colorful event, the festival aims to create awareness about the Hudson River and access to its waters. Festival partner Riverkeeper and other local environmental groups will be on hand to inform.
“The Sleepy Hollow Mermaid Festival is a joyful opportunity to reconnect the community to the shuttered public beach at Kingsland Point Park,” says Tracy Brown, President of Riverkeeper. “Riverkeeper is committed to opening more public beaches all along the Hudson River and we are delighted to join the merfolk in welcoming everyone into the water. We look forward to participating in another celebration of clean water and public swimming at the Mermaid Festival this summer.”
The beach at Kingsland Point Park will be open once again for wading starting at 2pm, with life guards courtesy of the Shame JCC. Rivertowns SUP & Yoga founder Tara Scheller also lead paddling mermaids in a water parade from that beach. She loved the creativity people put into making their costumes work on paddleboards last year.
“It’s important to not only be able to paddle but also potentially swim in whatever costume you choose,” Scheller, who organizes the popular SUP Witches festival in October, says. “We saw a lot of mermaid–style leggings, seashell tops, flowy dresses, mermen, and pirates too! We even had a SUP pup with a shark fin vest on a paddleboard. It’s so much fun!”
The Sleepy Hollow Mermaid Festival will be on Saturday, July 19 from 12pm to 4pm in Kingsland Point Park.
There is no onsite parking and the organizers encourage the use of mass transit. For more info, visit: https://www.hudsonrivermermaids.com/
