Deal Is Made for Mardi Gras Parades in Shreveport
Shreveport's two largest Mardi Gras parades will roll in February. The Krewes of Centaur and Gemini have reached an agreement with the city about extending the deal with the city.
The krewes will not have to come up with payments to cover security. Mayor Adrian Perkins will reach out to the state for possible help to cover security costs.
Bossier Mayor Tommy Chandler hosted the meeting which included 3 council members from each city, reps from both parades, police and fire folks, SPAR leaders and others.
Krewe of Centaur Captain Ricky Bridges says this new deal includes:
1. Mayor Perkins has agreed to extend our parade contract through the 2022 season, to include a possible additional year to follow.
2. City officials will be reaching out to additional state agencies to support the financial burdens concerning the parades, removing this burden on the Krewe’s.
3. Mayor Perkins has given his administration 14 days (two weeks) to determine a viable route change for the parades. Each Krewe did agree to an earlier, 3pm start time in an attempt to keep the current route the same.
Bridges adds:
I would personally like to thank everyone for the support over these past few weeks as it has been a trying time. I feel we have a strong voice and all your emails and phone calls to the City Officials helped tremendously. So as soon as I hear back from Mayor Perkins I will let everyone know what direction we will be heading.
Gemini Captain James Purdy also posted about the successful discussions:
I would like to let everyone know that our meeting went well today. It was a packed house in Mayor Chandler’s boardroom with Council members, both Mayors, and various department heads from Bossier and Shreveport represented. I hope that this information helps everyone have a little piece of mind knowing we will have a parade. Lets continue to have a positive attitude and get our community back to some normalcy and have a heck of a lot of fun along the way.
So, the big thing undetermined at this point is the route. Most of the folks KEEL News talked to who were in the meeting tell us they believe the route for the 2022 parades will likely be the same as in years past. This would include the Fant Parkway, Shreveport Barksdale Highway and East Kings by the duck pond. But a final decision on the route is expected to be made in 2 weeks.
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