COVINGTON — The MainStrasse Village Association, which will decide by the end of next week if it wants to revive Mardi Gras in 2001, got an earful from area residents Tuesday night.

        Mardi Gras opponents said the festival had gotten too rowdy for them, while supporters of the celebration modeled on the New Orleans “Fat Tuesday” festival said it brought in too much money for the village to abandon.

Signs displayed some of the dispute over a Mardi Gras celebration in Covington's MainStrasse at a meeting Tuesday. Sandy Arnold was critical of the festival. (Steven M Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        The event was canceled by Covington officials in March after drunken, rowdy crowds overran the German-themed village, vandalized property, urinated in yards and left litter strewn through the neighborhood.

        The association organized Tuesday evening's meeting at Main Street Methodist Church to try to find a way to have a “community-friendly” Mardi Gras. About 60 people attended the meeting, despite a boycott by some most outspoken opponents who have said they think officials are backing out of an earlier promise to cancel the 2001 edition of Mardi Gras.

        “We have taken it (Mardi Gras) to another level now, and it is a gold mine,” said Alliea Phipps, who lives above her business, 3c media inc., at 609 Main St. “That is not respectful to the small businesses and it is certainly not respectful to the residents who live here — many of them who have been here a lot longer than the bars. We have residents that have lived here 40, 50 and 60 years.”

        She said a lot of residents opposed to Mardi Gras boycotted the meeting, but she came to make sure their voices were heard. Ms. Phipps said trying to hold Mardi Gras again would be a “leap into futility.”

        In many ways, March's Mardi Gras was a victim of its own success. Unseasonably warm weather, and an Ash Wednesday that fell later on the calendar later than usual, attracted more than double the number of visitors than in years past. The festival drew about 60,000 people over three days to the small shopping and entertainment village.

        Many at the meeting wanted to see Mardi Gras continue and liked some proposed changes. “I definitely support Mardi Gras,” said Mick Noll, the owner of Strudel Haus, 520 W. Sixth St. “The only thing I regret is that we didn't take care of the people during the last Mardi Gras. Hospitality is important.”

        Some of the 13 proposed changes in the festival include hiring a professional festival consultant, increasing ticket prices, setting crowd limits and issuing wristbands to people of legal drinking age.

        Many changes involve security and crowd control. They include establishing a command center, an official police liaison and doubling the size of the security team, although association officials could not say how many people would be needed.
       

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