Parade weekend 2019 kicked off with beautiful weather for the 2019 Krewe of Lafitte Illuminated Mardi Gras Parade. While many years, the nighttime temps make the Friday night parade a chilly proposition, this year, with temps in the low 70s and clear skies, made for ideal parade weather.
More than two dozen krewes joined the Krewe of Lafitte’s armada of floats to kick off parade weekend in style. While the Fiesta float suffered a blow out and had to leave the route, it didn’t keep the good times from steadily rolling through the downtown streets, as krewes and other organizations showered ecstatic parade-goers with beads, MoonPies and other trinkets.
Friday night’s parade was a family affair, with kids from infancy to social security lining the streets to cheer for the procession. After the last float cleared Main Street, smiling faces could be seen everywhere, atop necks weighted down by thousands of glittering beads.
The two-hour parade was a great warm-up for the Pensacola Grand Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday, which will feature more than 200 entries and over 6,000 paraders throwing goodies to around 100,000 attendees.
Reporting by Julio Diaz. Photos by Phil Bailey.
