Mardi Gras kicks off with '12th Night'-style street party

Mardi Gras season is here, and it's time to let the good times roll!

Celebrations in Pensacola will kick off with the Wind Creek Pensacola Mardi Gras Kick-off Celebration on Friday. The annual party, in the tradition of a 12th Night Party, opens the season with a variety of activities during a Palafox Place street party.

To explain: Mardi Gras season traditionally starts on the 12th Day of Christmas, or Jan. 6. In the interest of keeping Pensacola's party on a weekend night, the kick-off doesn't always take place on the true 12th Night, but the traditions are basically the same.

Palafox Place will close from Garden to Government streets at about 3 p.m. to make way for the celebration. Entertainment will start at about 5 p.m., with floats from some of Pensacola's top krewes rolling into place at about 5:30 p.m. The krewes will remain parked on Palafox through the night as a sort of reverse-parade, with revelers walking around the floats all evening, socializing with krewe members and catching beads and other trinkets.

A procession through the streets will visit each float in turn for the "Blessing of the Fleet," including the reading of a proclamation by the Town Crier and a blessing from a Catholic priest. Krewe royalty joins the procession as it travels, and at the end of the blessing, everyone returns to Palafox and Garden for the cutting and serving of the season's first king cake.

The street party will continue into the late night, and of course, all of Palafox Place's vibrant nightlife options will be open to serve food and drink. For more information, call 465-4657, or visit www.pensacolamardigras.com.

Coming next week

PNJ's Mardi Gras coverage kicks off in earnest with a special season-spanning pullout section in the Jan. 16 Weekender and our online section at pnj.com/mardigras. You'll find stories on some of Mardi Gras' key figures and krewes, a huge calendar listing all of the Mardi Gras events (pubic and private), parade routes and tips and much more. Online, we'll have even more, including krewe profiles and tons of photos and video.

Send us your stuff!

You'll want to make sure your krewe is included in our Mardi Gras coverage. To do so, we need to hear from you IMMEDIATELY. Email your information to mardigras@pnj.com. We're looking for ALL public and prvate Mardi Gras events from all krewes, businesses and organizations for our calendars. Make sure to include the event name, date and time, a brief description and cost, if any, as well as the event address and publishable contact information, etc. Please include a notation if your event is private or otherwise restricted in attendance. To make our print calendar, we MUST have your info by 8 a.m. Monday, Jan. 12.





We're also looking to refresh our profiles on Pensacola krewes this year. If you'd like your krewe included in our profiles, please write and email your profile to mardigras@pnj.com. We want to hear about your krewe's history, its charity efforts (if any), attitude, membership, awards and honors. We'd also love to receive your photos.

Krewe profiles also will run on pnj.com, but the best entries will be featured on Saturdays in our Coast Life section.

If you have questions or concerns, call PNJ's Mardi Gras king, Julio Diaz, at 435-8699, or email mardigras@pnj.com.

PNJ and GoPensacola.com at the Kick-off Celebration

Look for some of your favorite PNJ personalities gathered at the GoPensacola.com truck during Friday's Kick-Off Celebration! Get your picture on a commemorative Weekender cover at our photo booth, and get some beads as we share the spirit of the season with you. And of course, we'll have tons of photos and video from the celebration at pnj.com/mardigras and on GoPensacola.com. Save us a piece of king cake!