UPDATED VIDEO  2.15.10

Mardi Gras celebrations are often synonymous with excessive drinking and public nudity — hardly family-friendly fare. This year, however, North Portland families will be able to celebrate Mardi Gras at an appropriately G-rated event. 

Philip Stanton, owner of Mississippi Pizza Pub and co-president of the Historic Mississippi Business Association, and Deborah Petricek, owner of Gumbo Gifts & Gallery, have organized a “family-friendly” Mardi Gras celebration to take place on Saturday, Feb.13, beginning around noon. 

The mainstay of the event will be a street parade comprised of Boise-Eliot Elementary students, clowns on bikes, mini cars, and anyone in costume who would like to participate. In the hours leading up to the parade, there will be mask-making activities at the Q Center (4115 N Mississippi Ave. at North Mason Street) for those in need of festive “facial wear.” The parade will commence at 3 p.m., and follow along Mississippi Avenue, starting at North Skidmore Street and ending at North Fremont Street.

Prior to the parade, there will be a spelling bee for students 16 and under, beginning at 1 p.m. at Mississippi Pizza Pub. Participants will be grouped into individual competitions according to age. Following the parade, Mississippi Pizza Pub will also host a puppet show performed by Bruce Orr, director of Mudeye Puppetry Company. 

Stanton said that there will also be face painters and balloon artists along Mississippi during the festivities, as well as live music, though specifics are yet to be determined. 

The event is funded through donations of $1000 each from the HMBA and the Business Vitality Grant Program, a city program run through the Portland Development Commission. 

Stanton described the event as “appropriate for Mississippi [Avenue],” given the community’s creative and artistic vibrancy, as well as the significant presence of families in the area. 

“We wanted to bring Mardi Gras into the time zone for families to celebrate,” Stanton said. 

In the weeks leading up to the celebration, several classrooms of Boise-Eliot Elementary students will study the origins of Mardi Gras, and construct papier-mâché masks and puppets to use in the parade. “It’s exciting for all ages to be learning about,” Petricek said. 

While Mardi Gras has historically served as an opportunity for indulgence and sin before the expected piety of Lent, Petricek contends that indulgence is only “one way of understanding and appreciating Mardi Gras. ... If there’s anything we should indulge more, it’s creativity,” she said.

Party-goers in search of traditional Mardi Gras merriment need not worry, however, as there will still be plenty of “adult-themed” activities on Mississippi Avenue on the evening of Fat Tuesday (Feb. 16), including a pizza-eating competition at Mississippi Pizza and a slew of special offers at neighborhood restaurants and bars. 

While this is the first year Mississippi Avenue will host a family-oriented costume street parade in honor of Mardi Gras, Stanton said his intent is “to make it an annual event as the years go on.”