An Athens State Arthead is prepared for last year’s Mardi Gras parade in Athens wearing a piece designed for the event.

Want to feel like a kid again?

Come and catch some beads at the third annual Athens Mardi Gras parade hosted by Athens State University art students. The parade will kick off at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 4, in front of Athens State University’s Center for Lifelong Learning on The Square. 

New attractions this year include rides for the kids on the Lion’s Club Carnival Train, unique lighted headpieces worn by the ArtHeads, “Make your own Beads” activity tables and a costume contest. 

Gail Bergeron, art professor and New Orleans native, will lead the parade along with students from her sculpture class special workshop. The group will be festooned in costumes and the “gloriously gaudy headpieces” participants have come to enjoy and expect in the annual parade. Each ArtHead will wear a piece they designed  — sculpted out of chicken wire and papier-mâché — in the selected parade theme of Steampunk Circus.

Organizers said Athens just might be the only town holding a Mardi Gras parade featuring this type of imaginative lighted headpieces.

  

What is Steampunk? 

Steampunk refers to an art form that adds an antiquated Victorian aesthetic to modern technology.  First a literary genre, Steampunk has evolved to also encompass a design aesthetic and a philosophy. 

What to expect?

Not only will you be able to catch Mardi Gras beads during the parade, at 5:30 p.m. tables will open where children and the young-at-heart may string their own beads. Barry Moore of the Lion’s Club will engineer their Carnival Train and offer rides to the kids.

This year, organizers have also added a costume contest.

Clubs, families or individuals are encouraged to dress up in their wackiest Mardi Gras finery and strut in the parade with the ArtHeads and other groups. Beads will be provided to throw if participants don’t have their own.

Preregistration is not required and there is no fee for participation. The event is free to the public. 

Any groups wanting to march in the parade should report to the corner of Washington and Marion streets by 6:15 p.m. to line up. The parade will travel back and forth on Marion between Market and Washington streets.

Bergeron is happy Athens has embraced her New Orleans tradition.

“Last year’s event was well received and a lot of fun,” she said. “For a one-block parade, we make the best of it and I really think that’s what makes it so special. We really appreciate the Lions Club for their participation by bringing the Kiddie Carnival train to The Square. As I have said in the past, this is the best, most fun, one-block Mardi Gras parade in the world.”

What does it all mean? 

Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday.” Traditionally, it is the last day for Catholics to indulge- and often over-indulge before Ash Wednesday and the weeks of fasting for the Lenten season.  

Mardi Gras draws millions of fun-seekers to New Orleans and other Southern cities every year. It has been celebrated in New Orleans on a grand scale — with masked balls and colorful parades — since French settlers arrived in the early 1700s.

Mardi Gras is a legal holiday, but not in Athens. However, it is in Louisiana, and has been since 1875, when Governor Warmoth signed the Mardi Gras Act.

Why throw beads at Mardi Gras?

Legend has it in the 1880s, a man dressed like Santa Claus received such fame throwing tiny glass bead strands, that other krewes — groups that ride on floats and march in Mardi Gras parades — followed suit. Today, krewes buy plastic beads en masse in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of royal purple, green and gold.

Any donations of parade beads can be dropped off at the Center for Lifelong Learning anytime during regular hours. Organizers said recycling from past Mardi Gras parades is not only OK, it’s good for the environment.

To find out more, email retrobics@yahoo.com.