The history of Red Hook’s own Barnacle Parade

When Hurricane Irene made landfall in New York in 2011, Red Hook experienced storm surge flooding that made residents think about hurricane preparedness more seriously. But Superstorm Sandy forever changed the neighborhood a year later with unparalleled flooding and 12-foot-high storm surges that left locals to literally pick up the pieces and rebuild from scratch. Neighbors relied on one another in the days, weeks and months that followed, whether it was looking for bottled water and food or helping a business clean up in the aftermath.

On Sandy’s first anniversary in 2013, a group of residents and business owners teamed up to organize and put on a parade, which celebrated the neighborhood and its resiliency to overcome adversary. Local business owners included those from The Good Fork, Fort Defiance, Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies, Red Hook Bait & Tackle Shop, Hometown Bar-B-Que and others. Outlines of blue waves were painted on storefronts’ windows, and highlighter-green and pink tape ran along brick warehouses to mark the floodwater’s heights. A homemade sign made from a flattened-out cardboard box outside of Steve’s, which served as a pit stop along the parade route, read, “Key Lime Pie loves its Red Hook. Sandy didn’t kick our asses, we kicked Sandy’s!”

There was live music, folks wearing homemade costumes, people holding up cardboard waves with sharks, cars and gas cans, and giant floats rolling down the streets – all of which our paper saw in person. The “Generhook Model #102912” float pumped green water and released smoke.

“Some people are calling it the Barnacle Parade – a celebration of the fact that we are still here, that we hung on, and an acknowledgment that in Red Hook we sometimes have to get in over our heads in order to thrive,” St. John Frizell, owner of Fort Defiance, wrote for Al Jazeera in 2013.

When asked why they had chosen a parade, of all things, parade co-founder and owner of The Good Fork Ben Schneider said a number of them had already been interested in parades and had talked about doing a fun neighborhood parade for years. For Schneider, it was nothing out of the ordinary because he had attended the annual Fourth of July parade in Warren, Vermont, and had worked on parade floats growing up. The Mermaid Parade, which brings maritime mythology to life every summer in Coney Island, was a source of inspiration for some others.

“We thought it’d be a fun way to kind of shake off the hardships of that first year and have a good time together,” he added.

Schneider and others continue to take time out of their schedules to prep for the parade and build the next eye-catching float. And it really does take an “all hands on deck” approach to conceptualize an idea and create something extraordinary from wood, chicken wire and other materials for the neighborhood to see. After the inaugural year, there was the fused City sanitation truck/pirate ship float that battled Sea Monster Sandy; a mixed-use building float that had a red crane and green construction fence in 2015; a Red Hook Ark (“to seek refuge on during the next flood”) in 2016; Lady Liberty canoeing in 2017 while it rained; and the Godzilla that stood more than 25 feet high last year.

“The lifelike creature could swing his arms, bend at the waist, crane his neck, and even breathe smoke from his red-illuminated mouth,” our reporter Brett Yates wrote in the November issue. “The hurricane – a shopping cart adorned in blue parachute cloth, PVC, and upholstery batting – kept its distance.”

Giving back

A few years ago, the organizers decided the parade would also serve as a fundraiser to give back to other hurricane-hit cities that needed help.

“It’s really become a great thing because we have, in the past two years, continued to benefit for other communities who have been most recently affected by a natural disaster,” Schneider said.

In 2017, almost $6,000 went to groups Taller Salud and Rincon Brewery Maria Relief in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit. Last year Barnacle Parade participants donated to the World Central Kitchen, an organization founded by Spanish-American chef José Andrés after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Proceeds from donated, themed raffle baskets – like “ski weekend getaway” and “wine and cheese party” – went toward relief efforts in North Carolina and Florida, following Hurricanes Florence and Michael respectively.

This year’s funds will most likely go to the Bahamas, according to Schneider.

The 7th Annual Barnacle Parade and block party afterward will feature music, food and fun on Tuesday, October 29. Parade meets at Van Brunt and Pioneer Streets.

File photos of/from previous Barnacle Parades and block parties above

George Fiala

George Fiala has worked in radio, newspapers and direct marketing his whole life, except for when he was a vendor at Shea Stadium, pizza and cheesesteak maker in Lancaster, PA, and an occasional comic book dealer. He studied English and drinking in college, international relations at the New School, and in his spare time plays drums and fixes pinball machines.