“We’ve made the decision to hold a series of different performances, events and live music acts instead of a parade,” Magic Hat publicist Marilyn Tagliavia confirmed by phone. “We feel it will better serve the community.”
In past years, a parade featuring floats from many prominent local businesses and organizations has been the festival’s primary focus. In 2009, the whimsical procession changed location from Church Street to Main Street.
Now the festivities return to where it all started. But instead of a parade, street artists, live musicians and other entertainers will perform throughout the entire length of the Marketplace on Saturday, March 30. Small, pop-up tents and a larger, seated, 100-person carnival tent at the street’s top block will house performers. All tents will be heated, and a large beer garden will accompany the top-block tent. Other related events will transpire at nearby locations from Friday through Sunday.
Confirmed acts include vaudeville troupe Daredevil Chicken, performance art group Big Nazo, breakdancer Snap Boogie, street performer Derek McCalister and “visual comedian” El Gleno Grande.
The official Mardi Gras holiday is always the day before Ash Wednesday, which means it can occur anytime from late February to early March. This year, Mardi Gras is March 5. Similarly, Magic Hat’s Mardi Gras celebration has moved around quite a bit between late-February and early- to mid-March.
But it’s never been held as late as it is this year. Scheduling it at the end of March ensures that Burlington’s population of college students will not miss out because of spring break, Tagliavia said. A subsequent press release also mentioned cold temperatures as another reason to move the festival further into March.
More acts and details of the festival will be announced soon.
Correction, January 29, 2019: A previous version of this story did not distinguish between the 100-person capacity tent and the adjacent beer garden.
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This event has become a day-long college kid drunk fest. It doesn’t even actually happen on Mardi Gras. Hopefully this is a step toward changing that.
Despite the click-bait title, I think this is a great change. This allows people to move around from act to act and check out more of Church Street, while avoiding standing around for hours in bitter cold waiting for the parade to pass by. I, for one, am thankful that Magic Hat has led the effort in putting together this community event for so long. Looking forward to it!
Honestly, I prefer this idea. Standing in the freezing cold to watch some floats has never been my cup of tea and its not like Burlington is short on parades in general. The activities sound great, theyve got some good acts and I love the idea of a (hopefully) heated beer tent. Plus pushing it back further should mean its that tad warmer still. I love the Mardi Gras in Burlington but in Feb and early March it doesnt really feel like were quite ready to kick off Spring yet. Good for Magic Hat for thinking of this in a practical way
Yes – as you can imagine, if New Orleans had our weather they would NOT have a parade in February! May it be merrier than ever! And warmer.
In the beginning this was a event for charity. Women helping battered women and other Charities were seeing the profits from this Alan Newman did a fantastic job now that Schlitz owns the brewery we shall All Fall Down.