Rouses_January-February-2018_60

the Mardi Gras issue

Expect crowds. Around 100,000 attended the parade in 2017, which occurred in the aftermath of the floods that devastated the city. The defiant theme that year: Come Hell or High Water, It’s Slippery When Wet. (The parade is more than a morale boost for Baton Rouge; in good years, its organizing group raises donations in the six figures for local charities.) With the city still in recovery, the attendance numbers are likely to be even higher this year. Such services as Airbnb present out-of-towners with a nice opportunity to join in the festivities and enjoy the parade like a local: drunk, but not driving, and with easy access to bathrooms. There are also several hotels along the parade route, or within walking distance of it. The bathroom situation in general isn’t nearly so dire in Downtown Baton Rouge as it is in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. During the parade, look for more than just beads and garish floats. The streets will be lined also with locals who’ve opened their homes to all during the festivities. Food and drink, in places, are made communal. The breaking of bread is, after all, the first act of solidarity, which is what the Spanish Town community and its parade have always been about — that, and a little light naughtiness. On the precipice of the holy season, there needs to be some slight and winking pushing of boundaries, and there ought to be events that bring together the high and low, rich and poor, if only to sustain the community and remind us that ours is a unique city worth celebrating.The Spanish Town parade achieves this annually, and for that reason, cannot be missed.

alongside empty beer bottles, of which there will also be many. (I’d wear closed-toe shoes if I were you.) There will be jokes — some biting, some tasteless — and jokes about the jokes they can’t make (“slap at overly sensitive groups here,” read one float last year). One annual parade highlight is the Krewe of Yazoo, Baton Rouge’s self- described “precision lawn mower drill team,” pushing themed lawn mowers and performing choreographed routines. Every Mardi Gras parade is at its heart a parade for kids, but note that your child will see floats that wouldn’t pass muster by Macy’s

on Thanksgiving Day. Your youngest won’t get the dirtiest of the humor, and your teens will have seen worse on the Internet a few hours earlier — if not from their phones during the actual festivities. You face the prospect of an awkward question or two during the ride home, but the best course of action in that case is to stare forward so hard that your gaze risks shattering the windshield, and say that you’re not sure what that meant, exactly, and that maybe they (and they could have been on a float or in the crowd) were just being silly. Derail follow-ups by suggesting we all go for ice cream at La Divina. When planning your emplacement for the festivities, note that there is a “family friendly” zone along the parade route on Convention Street between 5th and 7 th streets.

Spanish Town is Baton Rouge’s largest Mardi Gras celebration, attracting up to 100,000 spectators. The 38th annual parade rolls Saturday, February 10th at noon.

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MY ROUSES EVERYDAY JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2018