The Athens community celebrated Mardi Gras, which means “Fat Tuesday” in French, for the sixth annual Athens Mardi Gras Historical Masquerade on Tuesday, February 13.
This year the event was held at Terrapin Beer Co. and festivities included live music by Blair Crimmins and The Hookers, a costume contest, New Orleans cuisine and the crowning of the Mardi Gras yard. This year’s theme focused on celebrating art, history and culture in Athens with an auction of umbrellas designed by local artists.
The event also offered a ticket package that allowed guests to travel between Terrapin Beer Co. and the other venue, Nighthawks Lounge, for their Mardi Gras themed cocktail experience. Major events such as the Umbrella Auction and Mardi Gras Yard Crowning took place at Terrapin Beer Co.
The masquerade started at 5:30pm with food and swing dancing lessons. Local arts nonprofits sat on the patio outside the brewery, and Emma Brisendine represented Love Craft Athens, a nonprofit that serves adults with developmental disabilities through programming and workforce development. Brisendine is the communications specialist for Love Craft Athens and a graduate of the University of Georgia.
“We’re just such a small nonprofit, so we offer and we can tell people by word of mouth, not just [social media] what we’re about, I think is so impactful,” Brizendine said.
Blair Crimmins & The Hookers began their performance at 7 p.m., and trombonist Daniel Wytanis said this was the band’s third year playing the event and that he loved the energy of the Mardi Gras Masquerade performance.
“As a trombone player, it’s a special time of year when we get to celebrate New Orleans culture outside of New Orleans,” Vaitanis said.
Before the umbrella auction began at 8:20 p.m., author and playwright Hattie Whitehead took the stage to tell guests about Linnentown – The Musical, which is coming to the Classic Center in April. The musical is based on her novel, “Giving Voice to Linnentown,” which illustrates her perspective on living in that community before the Georgia Board of Regents University System expanded onto the property, leaving many homeless.
Historic Athens Director Tommy Valentine reiterated the importance of preserving Athens’ history and why this organization organizes fundraising events like the Mardi Gras Masquerade.
“It’s a great big party where a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds feel comfortable coming together,” Valentine said. “When we talk about preservation in Athens, when we talk about history in Athens, we’re not talking about one story, one place. We talk about all places, we talk about all people.
Valentine then continued to lead the auction, describing materials and designs created by various local artists on their umbrellas.
The main umbrella was created by Jamie Coquelin, a local artist known for his ink and watercolor paintings on silk. His umbrella featured illustrations of historic buildings around Athens and sold for $600 to Historic Athens Trustee Alan Cleveland, who bought two other umbrellas that night.
As a trustee, Cleveland works to promote events and recruit people to be a part of Historic Athens. Cleveland said the amount of camaraderie is what he enjoys most about being a part of the organization.
“This is where the characters live, the culture, preserving that is important if you live here,” Cleveland said. “[Athens] is a unique area, you know, a unique place in the world. Many people think it is the best place to live.
The masquerade ended with Andrea and Ozzie Mignot winning the couples costume contest. Each guest at the event was given two voting tokens on the Mardi Gras court and at the end of the night it was announced that Michael Lahovski was crowned King, with Narke Norton announced as Duke, and Didi Dunphy was crowned Queen, Lynn Battlegreen was announced a duchess.
Blair Crimmins & The Hookers performed again at 9pm with a drag performance by The Kurtesans to end the evening.
