What happens when procrastination meets political angst and Grove residents get creative, with a few cocktails in the mix? King Mango Strut, of course.
Take a deep breath. The holidays are over. Time to pack up the wrapping paper, the tape, and the scissors, and throw all those cardboard boxes in the recycling bin.
Unless, that is, you’re marching this year in the King Mango Strut. In that case, you may need that cardboard to create a food delivery robot, a Venezuelan fishing boat, or a clown car for Miami politicians.
The King Mango Strut returns on Sunday and if you’re in it, you’re last-minute busy.
The prized parade that brings out Coconut Grove’s wacky side regularly draws a crowd of 10,000 or so people to downtown Grove to see what outlandish costumes and outrageous floats will be marching this year.
What they don’t know is that most of those costumes and floats likely came together in the last 48 hours.
“We’re so busy with our kids, with school, with the end of the year, with Christmas, with traveling, with the holidays, that I don’t think any of us have the bandwidth to focus on what comes next,” explained Jacquie Szutar, a strutter for the last several years.
Szutar, who took a star turn as Taylor Swift in two recent struts, said she does not begin putting together her group’s parade entry until a week or two prior to the event.
“It’s more like, ‘Oh, the Christmas gifts are done, and I’ve got this quiet time now. Oh, oh no, I need to go to Amazon and start ordering stuff,’” she said.
Last year her troop didn’t settle on an idea for the parade until New Year’s Eve – five days before the event.
“Right now, I’m still just recruiting friends to be in the group,” Szutar said Monday, less than a week before this year’s Strut.
Kristian Ridgely, a strutter since 2022 and member of this year’s political circus troop – a parody of the Trump administration – confessed that he’s just getting started on his costume. He expects everything to come together Saturday evening.
A Saturday night deadline is the reality for every group a Spotlight reporter spoke to.
When it comes to the Strut, though, last-minute prep is not necessarily a bad thing.
“It helps with the goofiness and the humor,” said Carl Levin, the current president and organizer of the Strut.
With 600 participants and roughly 50 different troops, the parade gives the illusion of a well-coordinated production, many months in the making with hard deadlines.
Not so much.
As of two weeks ago, Levin said only 30 or so troops had signed up, barely halfway to his goal. But since then, 15 troops have signed up to march, with still more expected to come at the last moment, some even on the morning of the parade.
“It’s so disorganized, but it’s really Carl,” Jill Adams said. “He pulls off some magic.”
Adams is one of a “new wave” of strutters who joined the parade and embraced its spirit when it resumed in 2022 after pausing during COVID-19.
“I don’t want the Grove to feel like a white box. I want the Grove to feel like it’s still got some of those bohemian roots and activist roots that were still present when I was introduced to the Grove,” she said.
Adams said her troop’s ideas are often many months in the making.
But bringing those ideas over the finish line is a different story.
In 2024, when her troop staged a New Orleans-style funeral procession for Lolita the killer whale, the parade prep required pool noodles, chicken wire, paper mache and lots of hands – no easy feat, she said.
Sam Loetscher, one of the youngest troop organizers, shares that sentiment. Rounding up troop members to bring their vision to life is a task much easier said than done.
“Thinking logistically, like, my producer hat on, I do not believe I can get these people out of bed before noon to come to the parade,” Loetscher said.
This year, Loetscher had two ideas for his troop’s parade entry – the reopening of two classic Miami bars, Las Rosas and Churchill’s Pub, and the state-mandated removal of the rainbow crosswalks throughout Florida. The latter sounded much more doable.
When it comes to making a choice between competing ideas, Loetschersaid “it’s not necessarily what is most meaningful. It’s also just what would be the funniest and the most fun to do.”
When groups struggle to come up with a theme, Levin can provide inspiration, with ideas drawn from his list of the year’s best – or worst – headlines. That’s how Szutar’s group found direction this year.
“Carl was like, well, you know, someone has to be a bunch of blown-up fishermen. So why don’t you be a bunch of Venezuelan fishermen,” she said.
Now the group is running with it.
King Mango Strut secretary Stephanie Kepley, who is organizing the circus troupe, revels in the chaos and last-minute nature of the spectacle.
“We want to decorate a golf cart,” she told the Spotlight during a recent King Mango karaoke night at the Sandbar Bar and Grille. “Maybe it will be a clown car, maybe it will be a circus tent. But just say a circus tent for now, that’s easier.”
Kepley, a self-proclaimed cheerleader for the Strut, is not known for being subtle.
Her King Mango resume includes performances in the “Don’t Grab Me by the Pussy and the Pussycats” ensemble and “The Ronny Horror Picture Show.” Last year her troop created a giant joint that actually smoked, she remembered with glee.
Pulling these ideas off is another feat, often done with a hodgepodge of items pulled from the back of people’s closets, thrifted or rush-ordered on Amazon.
It’s a “haphazard” process for Szutar.
“I will admit there’s probably a few cocktails involved by the time we start to make the signs. That’s part of the feel,” she said.
As messy – and last minute – as the parade prep may be, however, the end result is a parade that everyone can enjoy.
“That has been the mantra of the King Mango Strut Parade,” Levin says. “It all comes together in the end.”
The 2026 King Mango Strut begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 4 at the intersection of Main Highway and Commodore Plaza and then continues east on Main Highway and west on Grand Avenue before ending back at Commodore Plaza. This year’s parade includes a pre-party outside Starbucks at 12 noon, and an after-party with live music.
Over the decades there have been many clever groups that have Strutted for our amusement while mocking politicians, developers, pretentiousness and silliness.
I still recall the humorous out of step marching band, made up of kazoo players, holding cans of Tab Cola and Apples. The audience was wondering what they were about. The last two at the end held a banner announcing they were “The Moran Tab and Apple Choir.” Thunderous applause ensued. Looking forward to Sunday’s KMS, which will honor Nathan. Sill missing Glenn Terry.