2nd Annual Asbury Park Mardi Gras Report

Here’s the report on our 2nd Annual Asbury Park Mardi Gras!

Saturday February 25th was a beautiful day for the 2nd Annual Asbury Park Mardi Gras! Downtown Asbury Park was bustling with mask-makers out enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. It was a festive afternoon with face painting, strolling musicians giving out Mardi Gras beads, and a juggler. The fun continued at the House of Independents for the big Masquerade Ball starring the Marc Stone 3 and the VooDUDES. Here’s a look back at all the excitement:

 Mask Making:

Our creative mask makers started with a plain mask from Backward Glances, then visited 15 businesses downtown to get the items to decorate the mask. Then they made their way back to the Shoppes at the Arcade, where our decorating tables were set up.

They got to enjoy Mardi Gras music as well as live performances and juggling demonstrations while they created their masks. A panel of three judges picked the adults’  and kids’ winners at 5:15.  The adult masks were so good we had to choose two winners! Prizes were donated by the merchants of Asbury Park.

Face painting:

Face painting artist Raven was back for the 2nd year. Kids got to pick what kind of face they wanted from Raven’s design books. Some adults got painted, too! Here’s just a few of the artistic faces that appeared at the 2nd Annual Asbury Park Mardi Gras.

 

Afternoon Entertaiment:

Thanks to the Lakehouse & the Music Saved My Life program for our acoustic guitarists (apologies to Georgia who didn’t get a photo)

The Masquerade Ball:

The Masquerade Ball was quite a party! Thanks to all the attendees who got into costume. Even our visitors from New Orleans were impressed.

Congrats to our king, Patrick from Hillside, who put together quite a costume.  Our queen was Linda from Kearney, who took our “New Jersey Meets New Orleans” slogan and created a light-up Tillie/Fleur De Lis headdress. Our royal court were Larry the Wizard of Asbury Park, and Debbie of Middletown in her blinky outfit.  All received wonderful prizes from downtown Asbury park businesses. Here’s a video of the costume contest.

Here’s just a few of our happy revelers:

Everyone was dancing to the two great bands: the Marc Stone 3, who came all the way from New Orleans, and NJ’s favorites, the VooDUDES.

Here’s a video sample of the fun:
The Marc Stone 3: “Come to Me”
The VooDUDES: “I Wanna Be Your Lover”

Thanks to photographer Douglass Dresher for many of the great pics here (dfdresher@gmail.com).

See y’all next year!