Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Feb. 28, 2025 – The 8th annual Mardi Gras celebration starts Saturday night and will feature a parade, dancing, food and more.
This free event, hosted by Kim and Perry Nettles, will kick off with a vibrant parade down Main Street in downtown Jonesboro. Starting Saturday, March 1 at 6 p.m., spectators can watch marching bands, and colorful festive revelers.
The parade will start at the parking lot at the corner of Cate Avenue and South Church Street to Huntington Avenue, then over to Main Street and back to Cate Avenue with a police escort. Spectators are encouraged to join a secondary line at the end of the parade and walk with them.
“We don’t technically close Main Street down for a long-extended period of time,” Perry Nettles said. “We’re following behind the police car as he turns onto Main and it’ll be closed as we’re walking and then there will be a police car behind us and then it’ll reopen as soon as we’re off of Main Street around 6:30 [p.m], then it’ll be back open again.”
Parade participants will be passing out stuffed animals for the kids, candy for people on the sidelines and throw beads. Perry Nettles added that downtown restaurants will have food and drink specials for the parade.
“We’re very close to almost all the restaurant owners downtown like Sarah and Brian Noble at Recovery Room, Sarah Reeves at Skinny J’s, and Dan at Brickhouse and we really want to push people to come downtown and enjoy the parade and then go eat dinner and really patronize the restaurants downtown because we know that they’re struggling with Main Street being closed,” he said.
The parade started eight years ago after the couple eloped to New Orleans and fell in love with Louisiana culture. Perry Nettles said he and his wife contacted the city to set up a Mardi Gras parade and party at the Glass Factory, and they have continued the tradition ever since. He added that a couple hundred people walk in the parade each year.
“There are a few characters in the parade. We have a giant papier-mâché jester and some bicycles and some other things, but they’re really slow moving and just a Mardi Gras celebration type of parade,” he said.
After the parade, there will also be an after party at the Elks Lodge, complete with live music, dancing and Cajun cuisine, however tickets are sold out. Tickets were $50 each for admission to the afterparty, which helped to pay for the free parade items, such as the candy and beads, and it helped to pay for the band, DJ, lodge, and the catering.
“It’s not a money maker, but any money that is made goes to Brenda’s Table,” Perry Nettles said, noting that Brenda’s Table is a local nonprofit food charity service. “So, we do raffles and things during our party to help raise money for Brenda’s Table. They’re like a food bank, if you will, but a privately funded food bank here in Jonesboro.”
Perry Nettles said while spectators can stand anywhere, he recommended standing on Main Street as that’s where the excitement “really builds.”
“Come out. Be a part of the town,” he said. “We’re trying to bring Mardi Gras to Arkansas.”