Organizers and fans of Miami’s wackiest parade are serious about annual bid to keep the nut in Coconut Grove.
Considering it was born out of utter rejection, Coconut Grove’s King Mango Strut has come a long way. Denied a request to march in the nationally televised Orange Bowl Parade on the streets of downtown Miami, a group of free-spirited Grovites organized their own.
“To hell with them. We’ll start our own parade,” was the rallying of King Mango Strut cofounders Glenn Terry and Bill Dobson.
Save for the pandemic years, the parade has been held annually since 1982. The Orange Bowl Parade ceased to exist in 2002.
The King Mango Strut – or simply the “Strut” in local parlance – takes place in downtown Coconut Grove on the first Sunday of January. This year’s event kicks off at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 5.
Dobson passed away in 2004, and Terry has moved to Gainesville where his year-old Flying Pig Parade invokes a similar counterculture ethos. But the Strut’s baton has been passed to a younger generation of “strutters” who’ve preserved its eccentric, grassroots style. Organizers describe the King Mango Strut as locally famous, delightfully strange, and beholden to no one.
“It’s an event that satirizes current local and world events and gets the community involved in something quirky and fun, in a neighborhood known for its bohemian nature,” explains Grove realtor Kathy Hidy.
Satirical indeed, with recent floats having showcased the League of Dead Voters, George Santos and the Run of the Bullshitters.
Among the acts planned for 2025: the Culture Wars (featuring yogurts fighting each other with swords), P. Diddy’s Wacky Lube Luge and the 2024 Olympic Games. Also appearing will be the perennial Marching Freds and Hare Krishnas.
Coconut Grove has long played host to some of Miami’s most popular outdoor events such as the Goombay Festival, Coconut Grove Arts Festival, Coconut Grove Bed Race and King Mango Strut.
Longtime Grove resident Bob Deresz remembers helping Terry when the King Mango Strut took its first tentative steps.
“It was a lot of work for a small number of people in the early days,” says Deresz. “We had to do everything ourselves, even cleaning up the streets after the parade because there was no agreement with the city.”
As the parade’s popularity has grown, so too has support from the community in the forms of private donations, citizen participation and government support. Even so, King Mango Strut President and Grove architect Carl Levin says that every year is a scramble to line up people to march, recruit volunteers and raise enough money to cover the tab to produce the event, which he says is close to $50,000.
“Fortunately, we have the solid support of local businesses, the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, the city and the county,” says Levin. “Everyone realizes the parade is one of the last vestiges of the old Grove.”
District 2 City Commissioner Damian Pardo is another backer, saying the Strut “represents all that is unique, special, and organic about Coconut Grove.”
FIU professor and longstanding King Mango Strut announcer Nathan Kurland appreciates the fact that the event is kid-friendly and free to attend.
“There’s been a shift in parade leadership to a much younger group with unbelievable energy,” Kurland says. “They’re doing a great job keeping the tongue-in-cheek feeling alive.”
Josh Abril, owner of Fookem’s Fabulous Key Lime Pies on Grand Avenue in West Grove, says he’s been involved in the parade his entire life. “When I was just a baby, my mom carried me through the first King Mango Strut,” he says. “A lot of people attack the Strut as a liberal orgy but frankly nothing is safe here. We take whatever is sensational and celebrate it.”
Jill Adams, one of a handful of volunteer organizers for the event, says what looks like a bit of vaguely organized mayhem is actually the culmination of many months of hard work and planning. “People call it the weirdest parade in the universe and it’s put on fully by a group of volunteers,” she says.
Strut Secretary Stephanie Kepley and her troupe are looking forward to parodying a few memorable performances of the 2024 Summer Olympics. “We’ll have the French diver and pole vaulter, Lady Gaga and Raygun the Australian breakdancer,” she says. “There will be bands playing and an after party on Fuller Street and Commodore Plaza. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
Longtime strutter Sabrina Wilkinson has been a parade participant since 2018. “This is really my tribe…people who are adults but still childlike in that they know how to have a good time.”
The theme of the 2025 King Mango Strut is “Peace, Love and Mangos.” Levin says last-minute marchers – and volunteers – are more than welcome “to help us keep the ‘nut’ in Coconut Grove.”
King Mango Strut 2025 will take place on Sunday, January 5th at 2:00 p.m. For more information and to participate, visit kingmangostrut.org.
