February is in full swing, and that means Mardi Gras is only a few weeks away. Cities across the nation are in preparation for Fat Tuesday, from the heart of it all in New Orleans to Miami to Chicago. And on the East Coast, tiny Burlington looks to Magic Hat, Vermont’s flagship brewery, to make the Mardi Gras festivities greater than ever. But while most other cities will celebrate the flashy holiday on February 24, Burlington and Magic Hat have devoted an entire weekend to revelry in the streets.
On Saturday, February 27th, the Magic Hat Parade will shut down such traffic-heavy roads as King Street, South Winooski Avenue, and, of course, Church Street, so that more than thirty floats can roll through Burlington, bringing beer, beads, and bliss to the masses. “This’ll be our 15th year, and it’s going to be bigger than ever,” said Dani Gleason, manager of the Magic Hat Artifactory (the name Magic Hat has given its brewery) in South Burlington. “We’re getting down to the wire, but we’re all really pumped to get this thing going.”
The idea of the parade originated 15 years ago, when a former marketing manager decided that some kind of entertainment needed to be provided in the Burlington community during the brutally cold month of February. “People get bored in the dead of winter, they want something to do…the parade is a perfect way to get people out of their houses,” said Gleason. A parade celebrating Vermont’s most famous beer, mixed with some Mardi Gras melee, is just the thing to leave behind the Snuggies and let the people brave the biting February frost.
The Artifactory itself, located on Route 7, is fully decked with Mardi Gras décor, indicating that the time is drawing near for the parade. Posters, tee-shirts, beaded necklaces, and masks stud the place on a kaleidoscopic level, with colors of every shade beaming throughout the brewery. “We get real excited for it,” said Gleason of the employees’ opinions on the parade. “We dress up for it, and we go down to it (the parade) if we get the chance.” Parade-goers also get dressed up for the event, donning their craziest, most creative costumes to become an even greater part of the celebration. Posters in the Artifactory display some of the get-ups people have given themselves in the past; from full body cat-suits to jesters and harlequins running around Church Street, the parade is a veritable circus for all those who attend, whether they are masquerading or not.
Magic Hat has even extended its reach beyond Burlington, holding a similar event in Syracuse, New York. Kretzer said “it’s the smallest Mardi Gras parade in the world.” Small or not, the mere notion that Magic Hat is so highly recognized in a distant city ensures that its reputation is well supported and that fans are trotting all across the country. However, the epicenter of all winter Magic Hat activity remains grounded in the land of its birth.
Magic Hat has an entire section of its website devoted to the annual February bash. Directions, weekend activities in and out of Burlington, accommodations, and a history of Magic Hat’s downtown throw-down are easily accessible and highly interactive on the website. “It’s just the most convenient way of letting people know what’s going and what they can do that weekend,” said Gleason. With people coming from far and wide to celebrate, posters and letters are obsolete—the website is everyone’s primary source for Mardi Gras mayhem.
They’ve also sparked a contest which will allow four people to win a trip to Burlington the weekend of the parade to partake in the festivities. Winnings include transportation to Burlington, accommodations, a year’s supply of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, a concert at Higher Ground, and spots on the Magic Hat float the day of the parade (there’s also a recovery brunch the next day for anyone who has a little too much fun at the parade).
Festivities kick off on Friday night, with the retro-funk band Deep Banana Blackout playing at Higher Ground. “We had (the band) moe. play on Church Street one year, and that was just too much,” said Gleason. The greater populous of Burlington heads to Church Street to watch the parade roll through; add a band of international renown to the mix, and one nightmare of an overcrowding problem is bound to rise up. “We decided it might be better to team up with another Burlington organization to facilitate the fun,” said Erin Kretzer, an Artifactory employee.
Saturday, of course, is the parade. In a video about the history of the parade, Alan Newman, owner and co-founder of Magic Hat, said that they’ve been able to bring about 25,000 people to the downtown area during the event, far more than the street is used to accommodating even on a beautiful summer weekend. It would make sense, it seems, to feature a popular band somewhere other than on Church Street.
Besides the parade, there are numerous activities for onlookers to participate in. The company has developed its own unique game called the Magnificent Crapparatus, which Gleason described as a game similar to Plinko. There will also be an exhibit from artist Jim Pollock, who designed the Mardi Gras Parade poster, and there will be several smaller bands playing on Church Street before the parade gets underway. And what costume-themed parade would be complete without a costume contest? There will be a King and Queen Costume Contest in front of City Hall at 1:30, before the parade begins. The couple with the nuttiest, most interesting, and eye-catching costumes will be awarded the distinction of King and Queen, immortalizing their names in the annals of Magic Hat history.
The Mardi Gras Parade not only promotes the name and image of Magic Hat. It is also a stupendous way to increase the commerce of the downtown area. “People are already downtown, so they might as well visit the bars while they’re there,” commented Kretzer. Shops lining Church Street, the various restaurants, and the bars are all targets for tourists and visitors to take advantage of. With people coming from near and far, traveling across states to watch the parade, business is sure to be booming on the 27th of February.
While this is a parade celebrating Magic Hat, splashed with Mardi Gras glory, it is a family friendly event. “We have the Little Jambalays area, which is specifically designed for kids to have fun,” said Gleason. “No one wants to see a little kid get trampled while everyone’s dashing around trying to grab beads…” Partying is obviously a focus of the event, but safety and fun for all come into the minds of the facilitators at Magic Hat.
In addition to the safety of little ones, Magic Hat has also offered transportation from the Artifactory to the parade. Customers are able to purchase Magic Hat merchandise and sample their beers on tap at the Artifactory. “We take pride in sharing our product with people, but we want it to be done in a safe manner,” said Kretzer. Transportation from the Artifactory has the added benefit of alleviating most traffic issues people would encounter on the day of the parade. “They (customers) can go downtown without having to worry about parking, which makes everything more convenient,” added Kretzer.
The entire event may be in the name of celebration, but there is a greater purpose behind it. That is for the benefit of the Women’s Rape Crisis Center (WRCC). Magic Hat has its own line of Mardi Gras bead necklaces and masks to help raise funds for WRCC, and the necklaces are sold at various locations throughout the city. “All the profits of the beads and masks we sell go to WRCC,” said Kretzer. “This is all in good fun, but it’s great to be able to give back to the community.” The Mardi Gras parade is the WRCC’s biggest fundraiser of the year, and there has been no shortage of support from both the volunteers at the Center and from Magic Hat itself. A link from the Magic Hat website directs viewers to the WRCC’s webpage, telling people what they can do to help support the Center, and every Mardi Gras poster has an icon indicating that they are all for the promotion of the WRCC. Last year, the parade and Magic Hat’s association with WRCC were able to raise almost $27,000 for the center. Profits are only expected to increase this year.
While February 27th may seem more than a month away, all the buzz evoked over the Magic Hat Mardi Gras Parade will make that time dissipate in a flash. The Mardi Gras Parade is a perfect way to get people onto the streets, energized for life to return to the bleak winter-bound Burlington once more. Costumes, jewelry, and more the most crazies this side of a psych-ward flood Church Street, all in the name of Fat Tuesday. Be sure not to miss it. For more information about the parade, go to the Magic Hat website, at http://www.magichat.net/, or visit the folks at the Artifactory.
Anthony Carace
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