|
A Mardi Gras celebration in Fayetteville is hardly comparable
to New Orleans, but in this year's fourth annual celebration
of Mardi Gras, the mood was quite the same. Breast-baring
females, lude, loud and obnoxious drunks, horny teenager boys
and freaks in full costume were among those who turned out
for Fayetteville's mock Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday.
Fayetteville has celebrated its own version of the festivities
for 12 years, although not "officially" until just four years
ago. The celebration has continually grown.
A float parade, judged by a panel of Fayettevillians, is held
on the Saturday preceding Fat Tuesday, when things really
get wild. This year, however, the float parade was rained
out by heavy storms, delaying the event until March 10.
But the Fat Tuesday celebrations were unaffected, and crowds
came out in droves.
In our ever-expanding quest to find out what is "really" going
on in Fayetteville, your hardworking staff at the Campus Voice
attacked Dickson Street, armed with cameras, notepads, and
audiocassette recorders as we attempted to blend in with the
growing crowd.
It seemed most everyone there was on an endless search to
find as much cheap "entertainment" as they could find. Unlike
last year's college student-dominated presence, the majority
of participants this year were horny and/or drunk teenagers
whose definition of entertainment consisted of nudity and
alcohol.
The crowd, estimated to be between 1,500 and 2,000, was heaviest
around the CD Lounge and Rogers Rec, where second-floor apartment
tenants bared breasts and shelled out beads to those below
them willing to do the same.
But the herd of people migrated between the packed-full Dickson
Street clubs and bars and smaller circles formed around girls
ready to bare it all. In fact, it seemed the majority of the
breasts belonged to juvenile females sure to be making their
parents proud. But the crowds of men around them dangling
their beads in the girl's faces didn't seem to mind at all.
"Its all about showing the boobs!" said one UA female student.
Those who were less concerned about catching some nudity found
their way into bars, the drum circle formed by the Walton
Art Center pavilion or the parade that, despite having made
its way through, continued to march up and down the street
with the Mardi Gras king and queen.
Freshman Casey Willis came to Dickson with is friends for
a study break, not the gratuitous nudity. Willis, who is Catholic,
said he was using this last chance to part before the beginning
of the season of Lent.
But if students showed up to the event expecting anything
like the 'real thing,' they were likely disappointed. For
the most part, the party was very tame compared to some of
the legendary Bourbon Street celebrations in New Orleans.
"If this is an indicator of the one in New Orleans, I'll never
go," Jesse Fowler, UA sophomore, said. Man of those in attendance
were doing their best to enjoy the situation nonetheless.
|
