Blast Off to Planet Mardi Gras at Universal Studios Florida
Photos courtesy of Universal Studios
Mardi Gras is synonymous with New Orleans, but the event didn’t start there. The Catholic festival of Carnival dates back several centuries, with some of its most famous traditions first arising in medieval Italy. New Orleans wasn’t even the first U.S. city to hold an annual Mardi Gras celebration; that would be Mobile, which first celebrated Mardi Gras in 1703 when it was the capital of French Louisiana. In 1723 the capital was moved to New Orleans, and in time it became more closely associated with Mardi Gras than any other city. Today it’s impossible to think of one without immediately thinking of the other. New Orleans is Mardi Gras, and Mardi Gras is New Orleans.
Over 600 miles away, on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico, a new Mardi Gras tradition debuted in 1996. Universal Studios Florida, hoping to launch a springtime event that could be as successful as Halloween Horror Nights in the fall, landed on Mardi Gras as a concept for a theme park parade. It made sense: theme parks are already known for parades, costumed characters, and fun food and drink, but they’re also usually a good bit more family friendly than a real Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. A Universal Mardi Gras parade could become a destination event for families and anybody who couldn’t or didn’t want to make it to New Orleans, hopefully drawing crowds out during what was usually one of the slowest seasons of the year for theme parks.
Universal’s hunch paid off. Mardi Gras remains a popular annual event 26 years later, capturing much of the charm of New Orleans’ festivities while forging its own unique traditions over the last quarter century. Like Halloween Horror Nights, each Mardi Gras at Universal is the result of over a year of preparation and design, with Universal’s creative talent working with the legendary New Orleans float builders at Kern Studios to make a festival that feels as much like the real deal as possible. With daily parades, squads of dancers and entertainers, limited edition food and drink, a theme that changes every year, and a concert series featuring big name artists, Universal’s Mardi Gras is an elaborate and intricately designed event that any theme park fan needs to experience.
Nothing of this scale comes together easily, though. As Universal Senior Show Director Blake Braswell tells Paste, it’s a 14-month process from start to finish. Yes, that means they start developing the next Mardi Gras before the current one even debuts. With a theme that changes every year, a lot of planning is required, and Braswell and his designers at Universal work closely with some experienced Mardi Gras vets to make sure things pan out properly. “It’s always Mardi Gras,” Braswell notes, “but then we have those six floats, typically in the middle [of the parade], that we change the theme out for every year. So we develop what that’s going to be, storyline wise and aesthetically, and then work with scenic designers and Kern Studios to bring that to life.”
2022’s theme is Planet Mardi Gras, a gloriously campy combo of Mardi Gras revelry and sci-fi movies from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Expect floats that combine typical Mardi Gras iconography with old-fashioned spacecraft and dancers wearing silver skirts and bubble-shaped helmets. And although Braswell and his team usually have a solid concept in mind before heading down to New Orleans for research, inspiration can always strike unannounced.
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