Keith Matheny

Detroit Free Press

It's not officially spring in Detroit until a little weirdness unfolds on Cass Corridor.

The costumed, face-painted, fire-breathing and freaky celebrated through a chilly rain Sunday the annual Marche du Nain Rouge, a Mardi Gras-like welcome to spring highlighted by the ousting from Detroit of the Nain, a legendary, red-faced, mischief-making, insult-spewing creature.

The story goes that around the time of Detroit's founding in 1701, city founder and French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac dreamed about the Nain Rouge, and was later warned by a fortune-teller to beware the imp, that it would bring him misfortune. Cadillac at one point was said to have chased the creature away with a stick, according to the Marche du Nain Rouge website.

The festival now celebrates spring, with the soon-to-be-ousted Nain representing all negative things holding people, and the community, back.

On Sunday, The Nain's amusing taunts to Detroiters were broadcast over loudspeakers, such as, "Hey Steve Perry, nobody was born and raised in South Detroit," and, "I Yelped that your food truck made me sick!"

Kevin Trovini, an English professor at Henry Ford College, attended Sunday's parade. He and friends held signs with sayings such as, "Nain, Nain, Go Away!"

"I’m teaching a class right now where some of my students are learning about Detroit," he said. "I thought, ‘This is great timing; to come down here and celebrate what’s good about the city, and be a part of this.'"

The parade featured drummers, dancers and floats including fully costumed and equipped crew of Ghostbusters chasing the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and someone who looked suspiciously like President Donald Trump on a post-Apocalyptic, "Mad Max"-looking car.

Jenny Medina of Hazel Park — replete with vampire fangs, white contact lenses and vampire makeup — performed with fire at this and the past two parades.

"I like that it's a community-based event, put on by people from all the neighborhoods around," she said.

And it's an opportunity for area residents to act a little strange, Medina said.

"We do that all the time, but (today), everyone else gets to join in, too."

Contact Keith Matheny: (313) 222-5021 or kmatheny@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter @keithmatheny.