Meet Punxsutawney Will.<\/p>\n
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\u2019ll be getting six more weeks of winter.<\/p>\n
The loopy local twist ahead of Feb. 2, Groundhog Day\u2019s official date, is the brainchild of 26-year-old event organizer Riley Callanan \u2014 who shelled out $2,250 to rent the varmint from an animal rental service.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s Brooklyn event featured a prairie dog doubling for a groundhog. Riley Callanan<\/p>\n
\u201dLast year when I passed off the black-tailed prairie dog as the groundhog, it was $550 for the hour,\u2019\u2019 the political journalist told The Post.<\/p>\n
This year, Callanan is upgrading to the real thing \u2014 who like his most famous groundhog brethren Punxsutawney Phil is from Pennsylvania \u2014 after her wildly popular first time publicly celebrating the day last year drew 500 people and turned into a bar crawl.<\/p>\n
As for the Brooklyn groundhog\u2019s nickname, Callanan said, \u201cLast year, we had people submit name ideas, and we voted on stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people chose Wolfgang,\u201d she said \u2014 and \u201cunless there\u2019s some kind of revolt, it\u2019s Wolfgang for the rest of eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bizarre ritual \u2014 Brooklyn-style \u2014 already had well over 1,400 RSVPs organized through the event app Patiful<\/a>, plus more than 600 others listed as \u201cinterested\u201d as of Thursday night.<\/p>\n Event organizer Riley Callanan says she sprang for a real groundhog this year, renting one for $2,250. @groundhogday_nyc \/ TikTok<\/p>\n Former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa will host the groundhog celebration. Getty Images for Vox Media<\/p>\n Sliwa told The Post he\u2019s happy to join the jaunt, despite \u201cnot getting many votes in Williamsburg.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMillennials, a lot of Gen Zers, they\u2019re trying to keep this tradition alive, and I obviously want to applaud them for doing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But the GOPer said he will not be holding up the groundhog \u201cLion King\u201d-style, instead leaving that duty to the groundhog\u2019s trainer who will be on hand.<\/p>\n