Parade during COVID; Mobile officials preach ‘personal responsibility’ ahead of Mardi Gras event
Updated 10:23 AM;
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Makayla Pitts is a recent high school graduate who isn’t vaccinated against COVID-19 but is young enough where she probably would not suffer serious health consequences if she contracted the virus.
The 18-year-old who is graduating from B.C. Rain High School isn’t taking any chances, however. She’s not going to Friday’s Mardi Gras-style parade in downtown Mobile because she remains unvaccinated and because she anticipates most people there will not be wearing face coverings.
“COVID is still out there,” said Pitts, who says she needs to get vaccinated this summer before attending college in Atlanta this fall. “I am not vaccinated so I know to still wear my mask. But people are not wearing masks when they are supposed to.”
‘There is going to be a parade’: Mobile poised for first post-COVID Mardi Gras-like parade on Gulf Coast
Updated 6:30 AM;
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It’s been a little more than two months since Mardi Gras Day ushered out the 2021 Carnival season on a whimper: With all the parades canceled in Mobile due to the coronavirus pandemic, the city’s Fat Tuesday celebration drew an anemic 1,700 revelers during a cold day to the downtown streets.
But the self-branded “Birthplace of Mardi Gras” isn’t giving up on one more short of a Carnival-like celebration, even though the calendar says the holiday has long passed.
Credit APR s Guy Busby
Mobilians don’t need much excuse to celebrate. Locals claim that Mardi Gras in the United States began here more than 300 years ago. But, COVID-19 canceled the parades for the first time since World War II. Now, the christening of a Navy ship in the city, named the USS Mobile at that, is a good enough excuse. Mobile will hold a Mardi Gras style parade on May twenty second to welcome dignitaries, celebrate the event, and give residents and visitors a taste of the way the port city parties during Fat Tuesday.
“The wheels started in motion, brainstorming, how can we make this really special?” asked Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who said plans for the festivities actually predate the pandemic.
Mardi Gras in May? If COVID cases fall, Mobile may roll out Carnival-like parade
Updated Mar 12, 2021;
Posted Mar 09, 2021
A Mardi Gras-style parade featuring Reese s Senior Bowl players is held Friday, Jan. 24, 2020, in downtown Mobile, Ala. The parade has become a popular event occurring outside the traditional time period for Carnival. (Mike Kittrell/AL.com)
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Mobile is ready to give Mardi Gras another try with a one-night Carnival-style parade through the downtown streets on May 21.
But before anyone shouts, “let the good times roll”, the city administration is sending a signal that COVID-19 will dictate whether the party goes on.
Amid COVID-19 uncertainty, hidden clockwork of Mardi Gras still turns
Updated Dec 18, 2020;
Posted Dec 18, 2020
A photo from the 2011 Mobile Carnival Association coronation, in which King Felix III Edward Dickson Williams III crowns Queen Lynn Wentworth Morrissette, shows some of the fanfare ahead for the MCA s 2021 king and queen. But due to COVID-19, the dates at which 2021 events will take place remain unknown.Chip English/AL.com
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For a few hours Friday afternoon in the Mobile Saenger Theatre, as a king and queen posed for official portraits in elaborate royal attire featuring sweeping 20-foot-long trains, it was possible to feel like Mobile’s Mardi Gras business was proceeding as usual.