Worth a cheer: Mardi Gras 2020?
Published 8:41 am Friday, March 8, 2019
Count your Mardi Gras Southeast Texas blessings this year and there were many:
- Two days of passable weather for the four-day event increased downtown crowds over a washed-out 2018 event.
- Attendance gains may help push the organization into the black for Mardi Gras 2019, after a dismal financial setback in 2018.
- New Krewes joined the Mardi Gras effort. Laura Childress of MGST helped guide them along, establishing some foundation for the event’s future.
- Fifteen member organizations that fund MGST — they include civic and religious organizations — will see some profits from the event, as they always do. That will help them continue their good works.
- And, most importantly, MGST is looking ahead toward 2020.
“I’m positive about what I saw down there,” Childress said Wednesday in the MGST offices about the event that ended Sunday in downtown Port Arthur. “Overall, the mood was positive. We were in recovery mode ourselves.
“Yes, I think it will be back. We have another year in us, for sure.”
Mardi Gras 2019 was never guaranteed. Nor is 2020. But the celebration of Mardi Gras sets us apart among Texas cities, and 27 years of sustained effort has made this a delightful — permanent, we hope — fixture in Port Arthur’s calendar.
The organization’s losses last year came with MGST making a good-faith effort to boost spirits in this community months after Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey, which devastated Greater Port Arthur. MGST made a brave effort to put the event on.
Organizers took some entertainment chances this year — some paid off; some did not, at least immediately. Weather may have been a factor. That’s all part of the honing process.
Childress said that additional changes may be in the offing in 2020, as the organization tries to stay current with a changing world. Nothing drastic, she said: Just changing with the times. Among the possibilities:
- MGST will make new efforts to attract additional volunteers. This year, the event was short about 125 of the necessary 750 volunteers. Some folks worked additional shifts to make up for the shortfall.
- With the local population aging, MGST may consider new ways to add seating around the ticketed festival area.
- The zydeco stage initiated this year appeared to draw big crowds; it will likely return.
All of that, of course, depends upon final word on Mardi Gras 2019’s financial outcome. That will be known by May 31, the end of the organization’s fiscal year, when organizers will look ahead to next year.
We are rooting for this public-spirited organization as it looks ahead. Childress said there’s little they can do about the weather, which needs to deal MGST a winning hand.
There’s reason for cheer in this outlook, though: MGST is looking ahead to 2020. How’s 2020 for vision?