Cover Story

By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

As Mardi Gras 2006 looms, local authorities and experts see the latest incarnation as a key moment for Mobile. Early indications and expectations look for this version to go down as historic, as the year things might actually escalate for the nation’s oldest pre-Lenten party.

Mobile shares the Carnival season with other Gulf Coast towns, the most famous being New Orleans. Both Mobile and the Crescent City have exchanged ideas and customs back and forth over the centuries, however, the older rendition has dwelled in relative obscurity beneath the worldwide fame of the Big Easy’s Carnival.

That’s not completely by accident. While Mobile’s Mardi Gras was promoted and organized heavily in the period following Reconstruction as a way to lure dollars into town from the outlying provinces, residents didn’t want too much growth. As New Orleans’ Mardi Gras came to be universally renown with similar celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Mobilians quietly enjoyed their more sedate interpretation.

But, Mobile organized celebrations first, as residents are quick to remind. When Michael Krafft started parading in the 1830s, Mardi Gras observation was low key in Mobile. Krafft and his band of revelers formed parading societies and before long a whole series of social events sprang up around the processions, although at that time, the festivities took place around the New Year’s and Twelfth Night rather than right before Lent.

In New Orleans, Mardi Gras observations grew so dangerous and wild that city-wide apprehension threatened to cease it for a while in the mid-19th century. In the 1850s, Mobilians went to New Orleans and instructed residents on the organizational tasks for forming their own parading societies. The New Orleanians applied those principles to their pre-Lenten celebrations.

Parading was ceased in Mobile during the military occupation of the Civil War. When Joseph Cain and his friends decided to revive the custom, they borrowed a page from New Orleans and took to the streets on Mardi Gras rather than New Year’s.

Presently, the forces of nature may have delivered a Carnival boon to Mobile, and many aren’t sure what exactly to expect. Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans has forced them into a truncated and compacted Mardi Gras this year, one many will be reluctant to attend in a city still struggling to regain its feet. The tourists who annually flooded New Orleans are left looking for a replacement and Mobile’s Mardi Gras is the next largest festival, and right down the road from the Crescent City.

Word is getting out.

“We’re getting imminently more press than we ever have before,” said Leon Maisel, president of Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau. “This thing’s normally very regional and now the attention is on us rather than New Orleans.”

Maisel understands the unique situation. “I don’t know that this has ever happened before,” he said, “this kind of devastation of a hallmark event.”

Maisel is spreading news of Mobile festivities in markets within a 150-to-200-mile radius, which includes a lot of areas well within the range of Katrina’s devastation. That publicity has increased as Maisel reeled off a list of periodicals with recent interest in the Port City’s festivities.

“We’ve had inquiries from the Sacramento Bee, the Tacoma News Tribune, newspapers in Oregon, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Washington D.C., Jacksonville, Hawaii, even USA Today and Newsweek. Everybody wants to know what’s going on in Mobile for Mardi Gras.”

Customary Mardi Gras events all along the northern Gulf Coast have been altered. “We’re expecting a 15-to-20-percent increase in visitors from Louisiana and Mississippi,” explained Maisel, “and a lot of those tourists that would have been headed for New Orleans will be coming here. I think that they’re going to find us enjoyable, that it will be great experience for those unfamiliar with what we have to offer.”

That’s good news for an event that generates in excess of $220 million in direct spending in Mobile and Baldwin counties.

Shane Aldridge, president of the Mobile Hotel Association, is seeing the effect already. “We’re doing great, but we’ve been doing good for a while,” he said. The area hotels have been filled with residents for months now in the storm’s wake as evacuees and recovery personnel needed rooms.

“In the past, downtown has been the main area affected by Mardi Gras,” said Aldridge. “The hotels down there fill up real fast. This year, we not only have rooms filled up with Katrina people, but some of those places downtown are under renovation and below their normal capacity.” Lodging as far north as Saraland has become a hot commodity.

Aldridge estimated that Mobile gained 12,000 additional visitors or temporary residents this past year. He feels that will translate to more bodies at Mardi Gras when hotels normally run at 80-to-90-percent occupancy. “We’ve been briefed on the possibility of a greater tourist boost this year. We know the police are getting ready for it, too.”

Mobile Police Department spokesman Cpl. Marcus Young, addressed the department’s general approach.

“We’re kind of playing it by ear, in a way,” Young said. “We haven’t had a major increase or change in plans so far, but we’re ready. We have plans to accommodate for bigger crowds should we need it.”

Young was tight-lipped about the department’s exact plans and figures. When asked about the number of officers working the parades, Young explained, “That information is kind of sensitive because we don’t want to tip any tactical advantages we might have.”

He did divulge that most of the officers are busy, working an additional 20-to-30 hours beyond their normal 40 and reminded that they receive assistance from county law enforcement as well.

Young doesn’t anticipate problems from the homegrown attendees. “Crowds in Mobile are pretty well behaved.Last year, we had one of our best years in as far as the number of arrests and citations,” he said. Young attributed the crowds’ relative civility to the police presence.

An estimated throng of 90,000 stands along the four-mile route for each parade in the three-week slate of processions.

Young acknowledged that a substantial portion of rowdy behavior most commonly associated with New Orleans’ Mardi Gras stems from tourists, and he doesn’t want to see those same people head to Mobile and expect the same environment. “We try and keep things here more family-oriented,” said Young. “We will be doing what we can this year to preserve that.”

Steven Toomey of Toomey’s Mardi Gras Candy feels confident about what the season holds. “From all indications, this will be the biggest Mardi Gras Mobile has ever seen. And that comes from 28 years of being in the family business.” Toomey’s company does a brisk business selling merchandise not only to the public, but also supplying float riders with throws for the crowds. “We’re selling more than ever and earlier than ever this year,” Toomey said. “We’ve seen an increase in stuffed animals, too, it seems like.”

Toomey feels the holiday has a lot of potential to move beyond the traditional form. “You know, we’re selling a lot more decorations this year. Seems like people are maybe having more Mardi Gras parties.”

“And people need that,” continued Toomey. “They need that celebration of life even in the wake of something awful like Katrina. Maybe more so.”

He doesn’t feel many obstacles can keep Mobilians from carrying the Carnival tradition forward. “When they’re ready to party, there’s no stopping Mobilians,” Toomey said.

He’s hoping the mood strikes tourists to boot since Toomey’s has opened a branch adjacent to Mobile’s stately Carnival Museum on Government Street. The gift shop lies in the direct view of visitors to the repository of Mardi Gras paraphernalia and lore and the addition is welcome. “We’re just very proud of this beautiful new shop and entrance,” said museum curator Gordon Tatum.

Tatum also sees a change on the horizon for this year’s festivities. “We’re expecting a big crowd on the 28th, for sure, since all the devastation to our west occurred.”

Tatum is quick to underline what he sees as differences between Mobile and New Orleans. “People are going to find out that our Mardi Gras is a family tradition and New Orleans has a more adult Mardi Gras,” said Tatum.

The museum has a variety of exhibits, a great many of which orbit the elaborate costumes and regalia used by the old Southern town’s high society denizens who comprise the Carnival royalty.

Tatum sees an influx of visitors every year at this time. “We’ve already had some snowbirds in,” drawled the curator, “but we get those every year. We’re expecting all the big crowds to be here the last weekend.”

Maisel feels the opportunity is ripe.

“This is a great chance to showcase this city,” said the tourism guru. “People are going to find a lot of differences (between Mobile and New Orleans Mardi Gras) that they’re going to like. It’s more affordable with just as much pageantry. I’ve heard MoonPies have spread to other places now, like New Orleans, but people are going to find out we’re the place that started that. We’re the kind of place where someone can bring their kids. We’re more genteel.”

“We’re kind of New Orleans-meets-Florida,” he quipped.

“New Orleans has a stronger brand with their Mardi Gras than we do,” Maisel continued. “We can use this to get our brand out there, that we’re a coastal city with a warm welcome.”

Maisel admitted the change in approach.

“We’ve never really marketed Mardi Gras like this,” Maisel explains, “because we just kind of thought of it like marketing the sun coming up, you know it’s just something that’s going to happen. That may have changed from this point on.”

“This is going to be a watershed event for this city,” Maisel reiterated. “Not many cities get a chance like this.”

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

Archives