22-02-2025
Watch out for beads at St. Andrews Mardi Gras Parade this weekend
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – Green, purple, and gold filled the streets of St. Andrews as they kicked off a weekend of festivities with the kid's parade.
Several organizations, school bands, and more filed down Beck Avenue throwing plenty of beads for the crowd. While it marks just the beginning of the 3-day event the Krewe of St. Andrews president says the planning starts as soon as the event is over.
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'The process starts next week for next year. So we work all year long figuring out how we're going to do it. What changes? What have we learned from last year? We do a little track record and determine what we want to do differently and how to improve it to get the information out,' Krewe of St. Andrews President Paul Ortiz said.
Parades may be the center of attention for most people, but dozens of food vendors and local businesses participate in the festival.
The Dive, a local bar on Bayview Ave, took part in the event by providing live music for eventgoers to enjoy. They say it's all about bringing together the community.
'We're all about the community, like give it back to the community. And when we heard that they needed some help with some entertainment, we gladly stepped in. We had entertainment coming anyway. And, you know, we still want the culture, the party to still be in St Andrews. So we decided to move everything to the street off our stage, put it in the street for everybody to enjoy, 'The Dive General Manager Scott Jackson said.
Saturday's activities will include the main parade and live music from 10 am to 10 pm.
'They're going to expect millions and millions of beads. We have we're going to have probably about six different floats out there. And it's going to be a great time They're going to see so many marked marching bands. You're going to have so many floats, how many events going on, and then, of course, all the vendors out here,' Jackson said.
'Come out, meet new people, enjoy the culture, have fun, the food's great, entertainment is good. We're here to have fun. You know, Saint Anthony is a beautiful place right on the bay. We've got two beautiful views everywhere on the baby,' Jackson added.
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The Krewe of St. Andrews is hoping for more than 30,000 people to enjoy the event this weekend.
The main parade will start Saturday at the intersection of 11th Street and Flower Ave at 2 pm.
News 13 will be live-streaming the event on Facebook and our website.
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