The event is cooked up from a New Orleans recipe to which we’ve grown accustomed: colorful parade, with plenty of beads; Cajun cuisine and entertainers; and big-stage performers thrown in.
The performances – including ones by Fifth Harmony, Macklemore and Andy Grammer – are preceded by the park’s parade, which this year has new floats representing a celestial theme, said Blake Braswell, show director at Universal Orlando.
Each float is loaded with bead-throwers and surrounding by elaborately themed characters, some perched on stilts. Orion will be a gold-armored performer fronting the float with a crest shield, Braswell said.
“We’ve got animals and huntresses – performers that are roaming with this float,” he said. Parkgoers will see folks dressed as antelopes, zebras and lions – and their stalkers.
“One of our floats actually has Perseus, and he’s got the head of Medusa with her eyes glowing and this gorgon creature on the ground,” Braswell said.
“They’re kind of a Vegas/disco ball walking kind of thing,” Braswell said.
The performers also are available before the parade for meet and greet/photo opportunities. The plan is for the celestials to group together there, Braswell said.
Additional newness in the air comes in the form of the atmospheric music piped into the park.
That’s 2.5 hours of music, he’s talking about. And none of it is “Feet, Don’t Fail Me Now,” the ditty long associated with Universal’s Mardi Gras parade.
“If there was something in the specific parade … it’s not in the overall,” Braswell said.
Mardi Gras festivities, including the concerts are included in regular admission to Universal Studios.