Mapping Next Steps for Opelousas’ Newest Parade
New Mardi Gras Parade A Success!
March 7, 2015
by Cheryl Devall
The Daily World
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| The equestrian portion of Opelousas’ newest Mardi Gras parade Feb. 15 drew cheers from spectators along Vine Street. Parade and tourism promoters hope the event can help the city attract more carnival season visitors in future years. Photo Credit: Freddie Herpin |
The Sunday before Mardi Gras, a new parade surfaced in Opelousas.
Concerns about its overlap with a popular trail ride, Lil’ Nate’s Chicken Run, roiled local politics in the weeks before it happened. But the sight of riders on horseback and squadrons of all-terrain vehicles delighted observers along the route through the city’s southwestern neighborhoods.
About 250 mounted riders and twice as many four-wheelers filled the street.
“We like horses, and we don’t get to see them in parades that often,” Charles Miniex, of Bellevue, said as he and his family watched from the tailgate of his pickup.
He recalled the equestrian units in the old Yambilee Festival parades and hoped that the new Mardi Gras parade would restore a tradition dear to his heart and that of other Creole riders.
Its relative success — no injuries or unruly behavior among participants and spectators — may set the stage for a new long-term addition to the city’s carnival season calendar of events.
Organizer Dustin Miller of Lawtell said he hopes so.
“I’ve heard nothing but compliments,” he said about two weeks after the parade. “A lady called and said, ‘Y’all made me proud to be black again.’”
Miller said he put up thousands of his own dollars to make sure the event had enough security, including Opelousas police, and clean-up crews. He declined to specify how much money that was, but he did say it was more than the $1,500 it generally takes to ensure a safe, manageable trail ride.
“It was a relief that it was 100 percent safe and we didn’t have any incidents,” he said. “For those guys to be able to come with their horses and their four-wheelers and have their grandfathers and grandmothers watching them come through the town, that was great.
“They couldn’t believe the smiles on the people,” he said.
“I was just disappointed in myself, that I didn’t have enough beads and candy” to throw, Miller added with a chuckle.
“If we do it again, it’ll be bigger and better,” he pledged.
Miller and others hope Opelousas will muster enough political will and foresight to support future editions of the parade
“We certainly hope this is an event that will continue,” said the city’s tourism director Melanie Lee-Lebouef.
“We see this not just as a tourism activity but as a preservation activity,” she said. “Trail riding is such a unique part of our culture.”
Like the St. Landry tourism office, which listed the chicken run but not the parade on its website, Lee-Lebouef said she envisions making Opelousas and the surrounding area as important a magnet for Mardi Gras activity as Lafayette has become.
Some events in Opelousas, such as the Frank’s parade on Mardi Gras day, began in part because people in St. Landry Parish didn’t want to drive to Lafayette for their celebrations.
“It may have filled a void,” said parish tourism director Celeste Gomez. About 20 years ago, she said, “the Sunset community had a large Mardi Gras sponsored by the Sertoma Club. But over the years it dissolved. It might have been right about then that Frank’s parade started.”
Along with Mardi Gras celebrations in Eunice, Lebeau and the town of Washington, Lee-Lebouef envisions the Opelousas parades as part of a package of activities that could draw tourists and their dollars during the important carnival travel season.
“It does have the potential to attract even more people,” she said.
Many visitors travel to southwest Louisiana for Mardi Gras from French-speaking parts of the globe, other states and even from New Orleans, where big crowds and snarled traffic propel city dwellers toward a smaller-scale carnival experience.
“Of course, where we sit — our location — is relevant,” Lee-Lebouef said. “We are half an hour from Eunice and Mamou, and an hour from Baton Rouge, two hours from New Orleans. It’s a good thing” that should help Opelousas cultivate its status as a go-to Mardi Gras destination.
“As we move forward,” she said, “we hope to have the city, law enforcement and parish tourism involved. It all comes down to information sharing and dialogue.”
Although Opelousas Mayor Reggie Tatum has not decided whether the city will permit the parade next year — he said he plans a public forum soon to discuss the matter — he expressed relief and satisfaction with this year’s edition.
He also recognized the event’s appeal to out-of-town visitors. “I met people who drove all the way from Ohio to come and see,” he said, although he had no idea how they found out about the parade.
Tatum, who grew up in the city, fondly remembered how much he enjoyed watching riders on horseback at the old the Yambilee Festival parades and conceded, “I guess I missed it, too.”
He added that if the mounted Mardi Gras parade does continue, he wants the city to place barricades between the paraders and the street. “That protects the parade route and the people,” he said.
Miller said he also would be willing to change some elements of the parade. If it happens again, he said, it would be a good idea to introduce pre-registration so give organizers could have a more accurate idea of how many horses, four-wheelers and party wagons would participate
Some officials continue to criticize the Feb. 15 parade. It did not win unanimous approval from the Opelousas City Council.
Paul Gennuso with the city housing authority board cast doubt on the idea that the event was a complete success.
“They say they brought people into the city,” Gennuso said about the organizers. “What did we get from it? Nothing.”
Miller disputed that view. Local businesses and Opelousas’ tax base benefited, he said, because people spent money at stores, bars and gas stations along the parade route.
He and trail ride promoter Paul Scott maintain that because of the overwhelmingly positive response they’ve heard, the newest parade could spark a concentration of Mardi Gras-themed events to rival the annual carnival at Cajun Field in Lafayette, where parades pass through a fairground with rides and vendors’ booths.
The Opelousas event could deliver another benefit, Scott said — “development on the side of town where all this happens. It really needs a hug. My motive is to get that side of town working.”
Businesses in the southwestern neighborhoods through which the parade passed got a rare revenue boost on a Sunday, he said. “I went to go clean up at Amanda’s (convenience store) afterward and the owner said, ‘No, buddy, thank you! We’ll do this. You helped my business.’”
The next move, Miller said, will be up to city officials.
“We showed them that it can work,” he said. “It’s up to them as to whether they’ll allow it again.”
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