(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Algiers Mardi Gras Festival returns Saturday [1] ['Khalil Gillon', 'More Khalil Gillon', 'Verite News'] Date: 2024-01-26 The Algiers Mardi Gras Festival is returning for its fourth year on Saturday (Jan. 27), with performances from Louisiana Music Hall-of-Famer Amanda Shaw, the Brass-A-Holics, the Edna Karr High School Voices of Pride choir and more. This year’s festival will begin with a parade starting at 9 a.m. at Lamarque Street and L.B. Landry Avenue. The parade will continue down General Meyer Avenue until it reaches the Federal City neighborhood. Parade-goers will then disperse onto the festival grounds where they can watch the aforementioned performances and engage in a variety of activities for all ages, including, for the first time, a face painting area for kids. “The intent and the goal [of the festival] as we continue to expand year on year is to be everything to everybody,” said Oscar Rainey, the festival’s president. The free festival will also feature a cookout competition between culinary students at the University of Holy Cross and Delgado Community College. Rainey said the aim of the Algiers festival is to support the local community. “Initially, the mission was to attempt to educate and support the youth in the community through arts and crafts, music, food and enriching the arts with the community and with those kids with a poster competition,” Rainey said. The first and second place winners of the festival’s poster contest are awarded a grant from the proceeds of the festival, Rainey added. The winner of this year’s poster competition is Shaneta Taylor, who is expected to graduate from Delgado Community College this fall. “I believed in myself, and I believed in God. I would like to thank the entire organization and everyone involved in creating the opportunity for me to showcase my talent,” Taylor said in a news release. Organizers hope an estimated 4,000 people attend the festival this year. The event will have 12 vendors. Several vendors are small Black businesses in the Algiers community, which the festival wants to uplift, Rainey said. Don Harding, co-founder of Fresh Fruit Sensations, said last year’s festival was “tremendous” for his business, which specializes in selling fruit drinks and crawfish, shrimp and chicken salads. “We made our handmade beverage. And when they did the second line and walked the folks in into the venue, from then on, we never stopped,” Harding said. “ It was phenomenal.” Harding said the business saw a sudden uptick in sales following the festival that led him and his wife Deneen to open up a brick-and-mortar shop in the Riverwalk Outlet mall. The festival also opened up a number of networking opportunities and served as a learning opportunity for him as a local vendor, Harding said. “You get tremendous exposure and it helps you to network and speak with each other. You would be surprised at how many things you find out that you’re going through that other folks have also been through and maybe can offer us some food for thought on,” he said. “So it helps to serve in the community, brings us together, and we learn from each other what to do, and in some cases, what not to do.” Related Stories Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/01/26/algiers-mardi-gras-festival-returns-saturday/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/