Party Like It’s 1998
Alison Draper, the all-star publisher of Quick, has organized herself a sweet event this weekend: MystiQal, an allish-day party celebrating Mardi Gras, this Saturday in Victory Park. The highlight: The Grambling State University Tiger Marching Band, the headliner for the first nighttime parade in Dallas in 10 years. Bring. It. (Full release after the jump.)
MystiQal Brings World-Famous Grambling State University Tiger Marching Band To Texas-Sized Mardi Gras Event
DALLAS (January 29, 2008) – On Saturday, February 2, Quick, Dallas/Ft. Worth’s free weekday newspaper, and Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits will transform the streets of Victory Park in Dallas into a Texas-style Mardi Gras event with live music, a 5K run, a parade, food and parties.
The number one collegiate show band in the world, the Grambling State University Tiger Marching Band, will perform in the first nighttime parade in Dallas in more than 10 years. The Tiger Band is the most sought after band in the world and has performed with the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Queen Latifa and at multiple Super Bowl half-time shows. The “band that never gets tired” will accompany the MystiQal parade filled with Texas-sized floats, decorated golf carts and go carts, dance groups, authentic Mardi Gras masks and costumes, and beads and baubles galore.
“The Tiger band will add a heightened amount of energy and enthusiasm to the evening’s events,” said Alison Draper, publisher for Quick. “Music is an integral part of celebrating Mardi Gras, and we are proud to have the best.”
Kicking off the evening’s activities, Hooters and Nissan are sponsoring the Mardi Gras 5K run. The race will start at 5:30 p.m. at the Woodall Rogers Plaza between Houston and Continental Streets, and prizes for each age group will be determined based on individual chip times. The Mardi Gras run will benefit Captain Hope Kids, an organization providing for the critical needs of homeless children.
In addition to the parade and 5K run, the heart of Victory Park will host a French Quarter-style street festival featuring live music from New Orleans native Dennis Cavalier and his Texas Gumbo Band, as well as the Inner City All Stars, a Funk/Jam brass band blending R&B, Texas-style Hip-Hop and the call and response of D.C. The streets also will be filled with tarot card and palm readers, street vendors, and outdoor cafés with crawfish, beignets and chicken and biscuits.
The event is free and open to the public, and a portion of the event merchandise profits will benefit The Elisa Project. Sponsors of MystiQal include Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, Victory Park, Friendly Chevrolet, House of Blues and Bud Light. For more information on the event, including how to enter the 5K run or a float in the parade, visit www.quickdfw.com\mystiqal.
About Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits
Founded in 1972 in New Orleans, Popeyes is a leader in the New Orleans segment of the foodservice industry and is the world’s second largest quick-service chicken concept. As of April 22, 2007, Popeyes had 1,876 restaurants in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam and 23 foreign countries. For more information, visit Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits’ Web site at www.popeyes.com <http://www.popeyes.com/> .
About The Elisa Project
The Elisa Project was formed in 1999 to provide individuals and their loved ones with education and support to combat eating disorders. Those involved work to increase community awareness of the disease, promote recognition of the warning signs, encourage those battling an eating disorder to seek treatment and provide objective information to families regarding the availability of appropriate professional services locally and farther abroad.
About Quick
Quick is a free tabloid-size newspaper that’s easy to find, flip through and take on the go. Quick is published Monday through Friday, and is available throughout the Metroplex at over 2,400 locations. Quick gives young adults the news they want, the way they want it: in a succinct format that’s informative and entertaining along with keeping you in the know on local entertainment, sports, fashion, where to go/what to do information, humor columns, sudoku, horoscopes and more. Go to the new easier to use QuickDFW.com to learn more about Quick or find a pick-up location near you
About Victory Park
Located in the heart of Dallas, Victory Park is one of the country’s most significant and innovative master-planned urban developments. Victory Park is creating a new urban environment with a carefully crafted collection of emerging and reputation retail, distinctive dining, modern office space, dramatic residential units, hotels, and signature entertainment venues, including the American Airlines Center. Victory Park is owned by Hillwood, a Perot Company, and Hicks Holdings, owned by Tom Hicks. For more information on Victory Park, visit www.victorypark.com <http://www.victorypark.com> .
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I’d like to thank her for organizing a Mardi Gras birthday party on my behalf. I appreciate it.
Folks, the St. Patrick’s parade in Fort Worth has always been a night parade.
When you say, “first nighttime parade in Dallas in 10 years,” you should explain, “we mean within the narrow confines of Dallas’ incorporated limits.”
No one cares about Ft. Worth.
I checked the posted link for Victory Park. I reckon it makes sense in a Dallas kind of way that there is no park in Victory Park except for one small section. Oh, there is park-ing…
Who’d a thunk there’d be more greenspace at the old powerplant?
Woohoo, party on the pavement y’all.
Geez Buck, relax and have a hurricane.
If this event is like others Alison Draper has been “in charge” of, it will be a lot of sizzle and not much steak. The jury’s out on this one…
Two interesting thing of note:
Hooters sponsoring the run? Hard to run with Hooters, if you know what I mean.
Popeye’s and the Eliza project. Eating disorders and fried chicken… not any healthy options being offered at the Parade??
from the official website: “We are not planning any children’s activities as MystiQal will be an authentic Mardi Gras experience in Dallas on Saturday, February 2, 2008. Now is the time to book your babysitter and join us at MystiQal.”
As a New Orleans native and a 44 year old who has rarely missed a Mardi Gras in my hometown (or the rural version in Mamou…or Carnival in Venice…), I can guarantee you that with the exception of the foolishness that goes on in the French Quarter, Mardi Gras is and has always been a time of FAMILY celebrations, particularly at parades. Home-centered celebrations with family and friends very often go along with (or before and/or after) outings to parades. The adults-only part of Mardi Gras is but a small part of the whole. To call a Mardi Gras celebration “authentic” and by that mean “adults-only” is completely inaccurate and disappinting.
And I don’t even have any kids.
And the “syt” stuff is mainly drunk tourists or maybe drunk out-of-town college kids attending the universities in new Orleans. Natives know that plastic beads are not worth that kind of indignity.