17 hours ago
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Meet Punxsutawney Will.
Hundreds of hipsters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, are gearing up to watch a rented groundhog whisper in the ear of ex-mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa in McCarren Park on Saturday to see whether they’ll be getting six more weeks of winter.
The loopy local twist ahead of Feb. 2, Groundhog Day’s official date, is the brainchild of 26-year-old event organizer Riley Callanan — who shelled out $2,250 to rent the varmint from an animal rental service.
”Last year when I passed off the black-tailed prairie dog as the groundhog, it was $550 for the hour,’’ the political journalist told The Post.
This year, Callanan is upgrading to the real thing — who like his most famous groundhog brethren Punxsutawney Phil is from Pennsylvania — after her wildly popular first time publicly celebrating the day last year drew 500 people and turned into a bar crawl.
As for the Brooklyn groundhog’s nickname, Callahan said, “Last year, we had people submit name ideas, and we voted on stage.
“The people chose Wolfgang,” she said — and “unless there’s some kind of revolt, it’s Wolfgang for the rest of eternity.”
The bizarre ritual — Brooklyn-style — already had well over 1,400 RSVPs organized through the event app Patiful, plus more than 600 others listed as “interested” as of Thursday night.
Sliwa told The Post he’s happy to join the jaunt, despite “not getting many votes in Williamsburg.
“Millennials, a lot of GenZers, they’re trying to keep this tradition alive, and I obviously want to applaud them for doing it,” he said.
But the GOPer said he will not be holding up the groundhog “Lion King”-style, instead leaving that duty to the groundhog’s trainer who will be on hand.
Sliwa said he wants to avoid another woodchuck fatality a la former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s infamous fatal fumble of Staten Island Chunk in 2014.
“I’m well-aware that I am not a skilled groundhog handler,” Sliwa said.
“I’m there simply to see if the groundhog sees its shadow…. I will certainly not make the mistake that Bill de Blasio did.”
The festivities will begin at noon at the popular Greenpoint watering hole Spritzenhaus33, where Callanan will hand out free wristbands to people who registered, also for free.
The group will then head over to the park for a 2 p.m. ceremony with Sliwa, then a bar crawl will commence, hitting local favorites such as the Craic, Ray’s and Good Bar.
Callahan gets a cut of sales from customers with wristbands at the bars.
Getting the proper permits, live groundhog, a stage and various other supplies set back the journalist roughly $3,000, she said.
“If everything goes well, I make it back,” she said. “If everything does not go well, this might be a story about the time that I learned a financial lesson.”
“I think that Groundhog Day is a very pure holiday,” Callahan said in explaining the popularity of her event.
“It comes at a time of year where everything is dark, and [the day’s attraction] doesn’t make any sense – it totally should’ve been lost to history by now — but people keep the tradition alive.”
She said she’s “had a fascination” especially with how Staten Island Chuck’s unfortunate demise unraveled.
“And I’m prepared for New York to heal,” she said.l
English (US)