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Event Information:
St.
Louis, Missouri proclaims to have
the second largest U.S. Mardi Gras
celebration, after New Orleans. Now
entering its ninth year, the Fat
Tuesday Parade is a colorful,
fun-filled nighttime parade that
winds through downtown St. Louis.
Although founded by French settlers
in 1764 the city doesnt historically
have a significant French Catholic
population. The St. Louis Mardi Gras
was started in the early 1980s by
bored, drunk patrons of Hilary's bar
in the Soulard neighborhood adjacent
to downtown, when they decided to
march to another neighboring bar.
Over
the years, what started as a private
party has grown in size and scale,
attracted major corporate
sponsorship, and is a huge part of
the tourism economy of St Louis. The
event usually attracts tens of
thousands of revelers. The size of
the crowd varies considerably from
year to year, with the weather being
the biggest factor in determining
crowd size. On the second Saturday
before Mardi Gras, there is a
family-oriented "Krewe of Barkus"
pet parade with corporate
sponsorship by Beggin' Strips.
Participants consist of anyone who
dresses up their pet in costume, and
walks their pet along the parade
route. The parade is followed by the
informal Wiener dog races. Then, on
the Saturday before Fat Tuesday, the
more adult-oriented, flesh-for-beads
parade occurs, although there have
been various attempts to reserve a
family section at one end of the
route. People from all over storm
the streets with beers and bead
necklaces after the Saturday parade.
The streets of Soulard, Geyer,
Allen, Russell, Ann, Shenandoah, and
others are crowded with people from
7th to 12th Street. The Fat Tuesday
parade occurs in the evening. In
recent years it has been moved from
just north of Soulard to downtown
St. Louis. The majority of the
overall Mardi Gras festivities have
corporate sponsorship, primarily
from Anheuser-Busch and Southern
Comfort
Local
Weather:
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