MARCHING ON
Nonprofit ‘Discover Lansdale’ taking over Mardi Gras parade
LANSDALE >> It’s been a borough tradition since halfway through the last century, and will continue in 2021.
Borough officials announced this week that the town’s annual Mardi Gras parade in November will continue, with one major change from prior years.
“Discover Lansdale was recently approached about, I hate to use the words ‘taking over,’ but making sure that the Mardi Gras parade continues,” said councilwoman Mary Fuller.
“And we have accepted that challenge,” she said.
Each November, dozens of local businesses, organizations and volunteers line the streets of downtown Lansdale, proceeding through the town and handing out goodies while marking the unofficial start of the winter holiday season.
The name of the event dates back to 1950, when members of the Lansdale Chamber of Commerce and the Jaycees sought a way to encourage the area to start shopping for the holidays, and organized a holiday parade featuring Santa Claus to highlight the start of the season.
A steering committee held a naming contest for residents to title the parade, but received few entries, and that committee agreed on Mardi Gras as the best of the submitted entries, according to the Lansdale Historical Society.
“As the story goes, no one was crazy about the choice, but the committee decided to use it in 1950 and try to come up with something
more appropriate in 1951,” then-Lansdale Historical Society President Dick Shearer wrote in 2019. “As we know now — 70-plus years later — nothing better came along.”
“As far as the parade was concerned, it was an overwhelming success — far beyond the Chamber’s expectations. More than 15,000 spectators turned out on a cold Thursday night (Nov. 30) to witness the start of this annual tradition. More than 2,000 marchers including seven musical organizations participated, and 22 floats were entered,” he wrote.
In those early years, the parade ran east to west, on Main Street from Line Street to Cannon Avenue, the opposite of the route it runs today. Crowds of tens of thousands continued to attend the parade, and in 1965 the date was switched from a Thursday evening in late November to a Saturday afternoon.
“So today what we have is a 70-year-old community tradition named the Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) Parade. It has nothing to do with the pending arrival of Lent, nor was it ever held on a Tuesday. But gosh darn it, this is OUR parade and we’ll call it what we want,” Shearer said.
In recent years, several volunteers have stepped back and participation has dropped, thus the approach to borough nonprofit Discover Lansdale, which Fuller heads and which coordinates nearly all of the other major events in town.
“We’re stepping up to the plate, and we’re looking forward to it,” she said.
Discover was to host an informal meeting on Saturday, July 24 at 10 a.m. at the borough’s Wissahickon Park building, 765 E. Main Street, to meet and greet anyone interested in assisting with the 2021 Mardi Gras parade. Interested persons were also invited to email info@discoverlansdale.org or contact Discover Lansdale members at upcoming borough events.
This year’s parade will be the 70th time it has happened, since the parade was not held in 2020 due to COVID-19, and Fuller told council Wednesday night that fellow council member Bill Henning proposed a theme reflecting that long history.
“Bill, I’ll give credit where credit is due, came up with what I think is an awesome theme: ‘Decades of celebrations.’ This will be the 70th Mardi Gras parade, so we will be using that theme moving forward,” Fuller said.
Discover has also been coordinating First Friday events, she added, and “I think we had record crowds” for a patriotic-themed July 2 event. Future First Fridays will include a food truck, art and music festival on Aug. 6, a chili cookoff and football kickoff on Sept. 3, and a Zombie Walk, with hundreds of costumed zombies walking up and down Main Street, on Oct. 1.
The nonprofit is also now accepting orders for decorated brick pavers to surround a planned gazebo in Memorial Park that will be named after late longtime Mayor Mike DiNunzio, and will serve as a focal point for events marking the borough’s 150th anniversary in 2022, Henning announced.
“I’m sure everybody will want to participate with a brick,” he said.
Fuller added that Discover is also planning to celebrate the borough’s birthday with a bang during Founders Day festivities on Aug. 28, in a day that will feature open houses, vendors, food trucks, a nighttime fireworks display, and a morning presentation to the latest Lansdale local to leave a lasting legacy.
“Soon we will be making the announcement as to who will be the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award,” Fuller said.
For more on Discover Lansdale and its various events and activities, visit www.DiscoverLansdale. org, search for “Discover Lansdale” on Facebook or follow @LansdaleOrg on Twitter.