This weekend, forget about Cupid. While actual Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday, if you recall your high-school French) isn’t until, well, Tuesday, the weekend is really the time to laissez les bon temps roulez. There’s no shortage of ways to let your hair down for one last debauch before Lent.
Live Crawfish at Sister Cities Cajun and BBQ
Like getting up close and personal with your food before it meets its untimely end? Sister Cities, at 4144 South Grand, is having a crawfish boil Friday and Saturday. Twenty-five dollars gets you a Hurricane, BBQ gulf shrimp, seafood gumbo, a mini crawfish boil, Cajun arancini, smoked wings, and Mississippi Mud Bread Pudding.
Kegs & Eggs at Broadway Oyster Bar
Lay down a reasonable layer of protein and beer (and donuts) before your day of revelry. At Broadway Oyster Bar, the fun goes from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, with unlimited eggs, beer, Hurricanes, and donuts from Strange Donuts. There will also be more seating than previous years. The cost is $25.
Are beads and yelling “woo!” not your thing? Check out the second annual Artigras on Saturday, from 6 to 9 p.m at the Wildey Theater in Edwardsville, Ill. Take in a solo performance from Darin Grey, films by Jeremy Kannapell, and painting and sculpture by Amanda Thoron and Micah Wall, as well as Aaron Wood’s Appaloosa van.
Mardi Gras Party at the Biergarten
Anheuser-Busch gets in on the Cajun action by hosting a breakfast buffet and a New Orleans-themed lunch by chef Travis Odle. The Biergarten at the tour center, 12th and Lynch streets, will host breakfast, where $25 gets you an omelet station and three draft beers, all-day parking, a heated tent and indoor restrooms, and beads. For lunch, nosh on classics like shrimp and grits, red beans and rice, lobster po’ boys, saffron and crawfish risotto and of course beignets.
Friday the 13th will be lucky this year. Mayor Francis Slay hosts the black-tie gala affair in the Rotunda of St. Louis City Hall. Enjoy food, cocktails and That 80’s Band, as well as the chance to rub elbows with city luminaries. Doors open at 7, with tickets running $150. Your admission benefits the Mardi Gras Foundation, dedicated to making community improvement grants in Soulard and downtown.
This is the big daddy of the Mardi Gras events. The parade steps off at 11 on Saturday at Busch Stadium and moves through Soulard, finishing off at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. See what more than 100 krewes have been working on all this time and collect beads in whatever way you see fit. Supposedly they’ll toss more than 10 million strands of beads, but who’s counting?
Mardi Gras is hard work. It can be bitter in St. Louis in February, and the forecast doesn’t look to creep above freezing on Saturday. So if you’re serious about partying, spring for admission to the tent. For $115, you get access to the three big heated tents, with food, open bars, DJs, and—perhaps most importantly, depending on how hard you plan to celebrate—VIP bathrooms. The tent is open from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Supplement Superstores High Heel Drag Race
After the parade, watch in awe as men in high heels race against time (you know, like women do every day). The race has moved this year to 12th and Allen. It tends to be a hot ticket, so get there early.
Still standing after all of that? Impressive. Starting at 1:30 p.m., there’s music and beer all over Soulard. Pick your poison: Dr. Zhivegas brings a glamorous freakout to 7th and Geyer, and the Funky Butt Brass Band gets old school at 9th and Geyer.
Light Up the Night Fat Tuesday Parade
For purists, there's a Mardi Gras event on Fat Tuesday. The parade steps off from Broadway and Washington at 5:30 p.m., but you can start pregaming at 3 p.m. at various Washington Avenue hot spots and Old Post Office Plaza. Before the parade, teams of roving morons participate in the IdiotDash, paying homage to the Iditarod dog race and replacing the canines with humans and the Alaskan wilderness with downtown.
