AT: Tim Baldwin
SAN ANTONIO — Festivals have become reliable attendance drivers, particularly when placed in the shoulder seasons outside of the daily operational calendar of the summer.
Six Flags Fiesta Texas introduced its Mardi Gras Festival in 2017, and it became a big hit with the park’s audience.
“Beads, beads, beads,” Park President Jeffrey Siebert was prone to say. “We can’t give them out fast enough.”
One of the highlights of the festival is the parade of colorful floats that travel down the streets of Rockville through crowds of park-goers waiting to catch numerous strands of holiday beads. Guests clamored to either be selected to dress in costumes and ride the floats or line the streets to take in the atmosphere and snag a necklace of beads — or two, or five.
In 2019, the park helped anchor its entrance into year-round weekend operation with the festival by moving it up to the months of January and February — to great success. In 2020, Fiesta Texas wrapped up the Mardi Gras event at the close of February, just prior to the impactful results of the coronavirus pandemic.
For its fifth annual edition of the festival, Six Flags had to think outside the box — or in this case, outside the parade. Times had changed.
With the parade being the large focal point of the event, streets lined with crowds shoulder to shoulder, not to mention floats staffed with park guests sharing festive garb, a whole new mindset had to be adopted to make the event a reality. The question of how to do it safely was the primary focus.
“It just doesn’t feel like Mardi Gras without some sort of parade,” said Jeff Filicko, marketing and communications manager. “The idea of a pop-up cavalcade created a way for our guests to enjoy an important part of the experience while still following the necessary COVID safety protocols.”
Although the parade doesn’t physically take place, the floats are situated throughout the park to add to the flair and ambiance of the event.
New for 2021 is the Houngan House of Voodoo. The park’s popular Halloween event has inspired the creative talents at the park to create a New Orleans vibe into a new haunt to be enjoyed in a different part of the year.
“The other safety protocols are from our successful HallowFest event,” said Siebert. “For example, candy distribution is now how we are going to manage bead distribution. Our scare actor protocols established last fall are now how we are managing the new House of Voodoo.”
For the event, the Fiesta Texas team transformed a back area of the park inhouse into a new area that faces the guest. Admittance to The Houngan House of Voodoo is regulated by a free reservation system in order to maintain social distancing and provide a safe environment for all participants. Also, limited capacity keeps groups separated from others and scare actors are even distanced. Siebert explained where guests and scare actors are close, shields are in place to become safety barriers.
“It will be open for not only Mardi Gras, but the House of Voodoo will reopen again for Fright Fest. When people see the New Orleans mausoleums we have created … WOW!” Siebert said.
Other elements of the festival are food and music. To help keep people distanced and safe, these activities take place outdoors. Specific festival foods, such as bacon-wrapped Cajun pork ribs, crab mac-and-cheese and sausage jambalaya, can be purchased at outdoor kiosks. Likewise, festival entertainment also takes place at outdoor locations, helping to keep people distanced and in an open-air environment.
“This year features more Mardi Gras entertainment than ever before,” said Filicko. “The showtimes and additional show locations naturally keep the guests spread through the park and entertained at every turn.”
All guests and staff continue to wear masks in the park.
The Mardi Gras Festival ran through seven weekends in January and February, concluding on February 28. Spring break marketing takes over in March.
This article appears in the MARCH 2021 issue of Amusement Today.
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