B-Town tips its hat to Mardi Gras

Author: Andrea Glaessner

The notoriety associated with Mardi Gras in the United States has given the pre-Lenten holiday a bad rep to say the least. Tales of debauchery, lewd conduct and women flashing their assets up and down Bourbon Street have made the annual event in New Orleans an X-rated affair and certainly no place for children. But a little farther north in Burlington, Vt. Mardi Gras is done a little differently and is a lot more wholesome.

On Saturday, Feb. 24, over 15,000 students, kids, parents and seniors turned out to celebrate the annual Magic Hat Brewery Mardi Gras Parade. The event had been postponed from Feb. 17 due to massive amounts of snow that had to be cleared after the history-making Valentine's Day blizzard. But thousands turned out on the rescheduled date, decked in beads, smiles and snow boots nonetheless.

Unlike its sister party down South, the size and scale of the event is manageable and engaging for all sorts of parade and party-goers.

More importantly, the event has a truly respectable undertaking aside from the traditional Catholic mission of Mardi Gras which entails getting loaded before a 40-day period of mourning and sacrifice.

In preparation for and during the annual Magic Hat Mardi Gras parade and festivities, funds were raised for the Women's Rape Crisis Center (WRCC) in Burlington.

Kate La Riviere, Minister of Fermentation Elation Relations at Magic Hat, the equivalent of a marketing coordinator at any other standard office, explained that during the week prior to the parade stores in Burlington sold beads, hats, masks and other costumes and donated their proceeds to WRCC. The selling and donating continued through the parade with over 350 volunteers selling beads and keeping the crowds in check on the actual day of the event.

Proceeds for WRCC also came directly from the parade participants themselves. According to La Riviere, participants paid $200 as an entry fee and additionally performed their own fundraising.

The funds raised will support all of WRCC's programs from women's support services to women's crisis education in schools and businesses. In the end, everyone's fundraising efforts paid off.

Kendall Farrell, assistant director of WRCC reported the total amount raised to be around $13,000. "We were just shy of what we had hoped to do," Farrell said, "But given the fact that the parade had to be postponed because of all the snow we were really happy about it." The total amount raised was short of last year's whopping $17,000 which, according to Farrell was the highest amount raised in the event's twelve-year history.

Farrell missed the parade, but was selling beads shortly after the floats had rolled by in all their majestic Mardi Gras glory. Farrell was surprised to see such a large, lively crowd.

"We were really worried with the postponement that people would lose enthusiasm, but that was not the case," Farrell said, explaining why she was so pleasantly surprised at the presence of spectators still lingering around, buying beads after the parade had passed.

Magic Hat was also concerned that the turnout might be less than stellar. According to La Riviere, "When we planned for the parade on the 17th we expected that at least 25,000 people would show, so the rescheduling may have put a slight cramp in our numbers."

The postponement may have put a slight cramp in a few people's travel plans as well. La Riviere checked the website and commented, "I have seen people's feedback on the website and we heard from a few people who were really bummed that it got postponed because they had already booked plane tickets or made vacation plans."

But in the end, nothing could stop "The Biggest Mardi Gras East of the Mississippi" from bringing in nothing less than a good time had by all.

La Riviere mentioned, "One of my coworkers bumped into two guys from GQ magazine on a tour of Mardi Gras celebrations who said this one was the best Mardi Gras parade they had seen."

In fact, La Riviere noted that there was a silver lining in the parade's postponement: "It turned into a weeklong celebration rather than a weekend one." On the weekend of the originally scheduled parade Magic Hat still went forward with other planned events like the kickoff party at Higher Ground.

On Saturday Magic Hat offered brewery tours, more events downtown and witnessed the transformation of Church Street as clubs and bars downtown anchored themselves to the event and threw their own Mardi Gras festivities.

When the Mardi Gras parade finally came to fruition, the many companies and groups from all over Burlington who created their very own themed floats were finally able to show off their hard work. Various community members judged the floats to determine the winner of the annual "Best Float Award."

This year, Magic Hat had a beautiful, ethereal float themed after the season ale h.I.P.A., a "highly hopped beer." Artwork for the float was drawn by Stanley Mouse who is famous for his iconic art of the Grateful Dead.

The big crowd favorite this year was the float for the Redstone Commercial Group that featured a parody performance of Victoria's Angels called Victor's Angels, featuring men of all shapes and sized donning fabulously sexy lingerie. Katie Goldstein, a junior at UVM, found the Redstone float to be "by far the best thing about this year's parade."

Unfortunately the people's choice did not prevail. But this year's official float winner was certainly worthy of the coveted prize. Top Hat Entertainment's "Superhero" float featuring Wonder Woman, Batman and even Clark Kent changing into Superman in a phone booth took the cake in this year's best float contest.

According to La Riviere, it was a combination of music, costumes and overall creativity that led Top Hat Entertainment to claim the victory.

Maddie William, a junior at UVM, raved about the event, although she said she wishes the parade itself had been longer. "The parade was only an hour," William noted, "But I guess how long can you make a parade? If they got more sponsors maybe it could be better."

La Riviere confirmed this sentiment, saying, "We had fewer floats this year than in years past, but it ran a good 45 minutes."

In the past, William felt the parade was rowdier and a bit more exciting. This was her second parade and William described the differences between this year and last saying, "Last year people were able to run around in the streets more. This year there was better crowd control so it was a better environment for little kids which is good."

This observation was certainly satisfying to hear for Magic Hat.

La Riviere expressed that the event is meant to be family oriented. "I think in years past it might have been a little bawdier. But we really try to have people understand that it's a family event."

One of the ways Magic Hat ensures that behavior remains under control is with crowd control volunteers for the spectators and with a "behavior deposit" for parade participants.

"We have a behavior deposit so we put the rules in place about drinking and certain behaviors that we frown upon from both a logistical standpoint and to make sure everything stays PG," La Riviere explained, "So companies and other parade participants pay $50 per float and that's their behavior bond. At the end, if we don't have any incidents, they get their check back.

La Riviere agreed that this year did not witness much family unfriendly behavior. She attributes this to a general attitude about the event. "People are pretty cognizant of the fact that it's not the time to get loaded and be obscene," she explained.

It seemed this year that college students were, for the most part, on par with Magic Hat's expectations. According to William, the event offered UVM students an opportunity to prove
themselves as responsible, positive contributors to the Burlington community.

By acting in a way that was acceptable to Magic Hat, the students at the college were able to improve their standing in the eyes of the citizens of Burlington and the greater area.

"A lot of people think the town and UVM conflict sometimes. But this goes to show that the college scene definitely fits in well with the community. I think it was really cool the way the college students were able to integrate with the town and not be so isolated or exclusive," said Williams.