Jami Nettles stocked up on Halloween candy a few months ago but was ultimately disappointed when very few people went trick-or-treating in Columbus.
Now she’s stocking up on candy again and hoping the upcoming socially distanced Mardi Gras celebration will draw more people, she said.
Nettles and some of her neighbors’ appreciation for New Orleans’ annual Mardi Gras parade, canceled this year due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, spawned a local adaptation called “Yardi Gras,” in which Columbus residents will decorate their houses for anyone to view from the streets.
Another organizer, Lisa Elmore, described Yardi Gras — scheduled for 2 to 6 p.m. Feb. 6 — as a “reverse parade” in which people can walk, bike or drive past decorated houses instead of watching decorated floats drive past them.
Yardi Gras started as a conversation between a few Southside residents and grew into an event with almost 40 houses involved, Elmore said.
“I just asked a few friends and neighbors and thought maybe five houses would want to join in,” she said. “(We were going to) invite our own personal friends and keep it kind of small, but somehow word just spread like wildfire on Facebook. I guess people are just really hungry for something fun to do.”
Nettles created a map of the most efficient route through Columbus to see all the decorated houses, since both Northside and Southside residents will be involved. The route starts on Main Street downtown, at the Tennessee Williams Home, and weaves through Southside before crossing Main Street and heading up Military Road to Northside.
The organizers received an event permit from the city, and Columbus police will be monitoring the event, Chief Fred Shelton confirmed to The Dispatch.
Elmore emphasized that the four-hour event means no one should be in a rush, which should help people stay several feet away from anyone outside their own household. She also strongly encouraged participants to wear protective face coverings, since it is “still a critical time” in the pandemic.
Elmore has already decorated her house for Yardi Gras, while Nettles said she is waiting to decorate hers in case of inclement weather over the next week. She also said she looks forward to throwing candy and beads as people pass her house.
“It’s great, the whole idea of throwing things in your yard and not being close to people,” Nettles said.
Realtor Colin Krieger and his wife, Desiree, are from the New Orleans area, so he appreciates the opportunity to bring an aspect of their hometown’s culture to Columbus, he told The Dispatch.
“I see Columbus in a lot of ways as kind of the edge of the New Orleans (and) Cajun influence,” Krieger said. “You see shrimp po’ boys and crawfish up here, and if you go much further north, they make it a lot harder to find. I think with all the expatriates from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast living up here, it’s been pretty easy to get the gang together for this.”
He hopes Yardi Gras helps to “instill a sense of community” after almost a year of restricted social activity due to the pandemic. He said he appreciates that social media has fostered enough communication and connection to plan such an event.
Eric Ford, another organizer and a Northside resident, said he would like to see Yardi Gras become annual, even with the pandemic hopefully a thing of the past by next year.
“I’d love to see hundreds and hundreds of cars,” Ford said. “We’ve got beads and doubloons to throw. We’re going to try to treat it like a real Mardi Gras.”
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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