City of Trees Parade and Mardi Gras Festival takes place on warm Sacramento day
SACRAMENTO – The 4th annual City of Trees Parade and Mardi Gras Festival took place Saturday at Capitol Mall and Old Sacramento.
"It's almost like it was supposed to happen," said lead organizer Wes Samms.
It happened to be the warmest weekend of the year so far.
"Oh yeah, I brought my jacket and haven't put it on once and I'm sweating, don't even need it," said festival-goer Melissa Indrebo.
"It's still nice and it's dark out," said Jirsa with the Sac Quad Squad.
Organizers say it's the biggest Mardi Gras parade in the state. Indrebo drove up from the Bay Area to attend.
"There's been a little bit of everything," she said.
"We stopped off at Evangeline's and we got our little accouterments for the big event," said Valerie, a festival goer showing off her Mardi Gras beads.
Thousands of festival-goers brought business to Old Sacramento and surrounding areas.
"We love the events for sure. It gets everyone in a festive mood and it's good for us and I know all my neighbors would probably agree with me," said the owner of Last Stop Saloon Scott Manley.
"There is so much here that people can feel inspired by and they can feel proud of and when you come to the city of trees parade you're going to experience that," said Samms.
More than a thousand performers from dancers to roller skaters to art cars from Burning Man all made their way from Capitol Mall to Old Sacramento.
"We are building a culture and community around Mardi Gras in Sacramento. It's all about celebrating yourself, your town, your culture, your heritage. We are here teaching Sacramento to celebrate itself the same way New Orleans celebrates itself," said Samms.
"We will be dancing, I wore my dancing shoes," said Valerie.
"I just think that it's such a great parade, to be in the capitol and old sac like the location is just beautiful everything about it is such a great gathering of community," said Jirsa.
The whole event was put on by a nonprofit with the help of more than 100 volunteers and roughly 25 local sponsors. The lead organizer says they hope to continue to grow the event for years to come.
