45th Gulf Shores Mardi Gras parade to kick off Fat Tuesday on the Gulf Coast

GULF SHORES, Ala. (WALA) - There’s a huge Fat Tuesday on tap for the Gulf Coast and it all gets started in Baldwin County as the Gulf Shores Mardi Gras parade rolls at 10:00 a.m. It’s the 45th anniversary for the parade this year and the city will have a very special Grand Marshall this year.

The barricades are up, and Monday’s empty sidewalks will transform into a sea of people on Mardi Gras Day. Tens of thousands of parade-goers and revelers will pack into the mile-and-a-half parade route.

The parade begins at East Beach Boulevard and Highway 59 and will run ease to the Gulf State Park Pier entrance. The city moved the parade from Highway 59 to its current location several years ago.

“In prior years when the parade was on Highway 59, once the parade started rolling, unless it was a dire emergency, that road shut down for a number of hours,” explained Grant Brown with the city of Gulf Shores.

Gulf Shores touts its Mardi Gras festivities as a family-friendly, fun parade and seasonal visitors who’ve been there for past Mardi Gras agree and are looking forward to it.

“It’s just kind of exciting, you know. It’s very well organized. The people are very friendly. It’s just a real nice parade,” said Glenn Burchell.

Brenda Swedberg from Missouri will be attending for the first time, all the hype has her curiosity peaked.

“It sounds like it’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be by this not being New Orleans, but I assume that…they say it’s pretty big,” Swedberg said.

This year the city has a big name serving as Grand Marshall. LuLu’s restaurant owner, Lucy Buffet will have that honor this year. She’ll head up the parade aboard the city float. There will be a ton of throws including some special edition 25th anniversary beads. Katie Wilson is the event coordinator for LuLu’s and was putting the finishing touches on the float Monday.

“So, we’ve got some LuLu’s koozies and some fun throws. We’ve also got some fun beads in there too. We have some T-shirts. You can get some LuLu’s T-shirts,” Wilson said. “Of course, some moon pies. You can’t forget the moon pies.”

City leaders are putting an emphasis on public safety and remind parade-goers not to go over the barricades and to keep an eye out for one another.

“Watch your neighbors when you’re down there,” Brown said. “We’re really trying to promote the family side of this so if you’ve got little children around you, make sure that you don’t trample over the kids to get to the stuffed animals that are thrown or the moon pies or the beads. You know, be real courteous and present to your neighbors.”

The parade starts at 10:00 a.m. so get there early. Parking is available along several of the side streets off Highway 59 and north of Beach Boulevard. If you can’t make it, FOX10 will have live coverage of that parade and all of the Fat Tuesday action from both sides of the bay with coverage also starting at 10 a.m.

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