The 11th Annual Artvoice Mardi Gras is the biggest Fat Tuesday charity event anywhere and the third biggest Mardi Gras celebration in the country.
Our parade boasts more than 40 floats, the 7k Big Fat Race and Big Fat Bike Ride, all wending a tipsy path from the Albright-Knox, along Elmwood, through Allentown and Chippewa and ending at Cozumel. Parade begins at 5 p.m. at the Albright-Knox.
A mere $5, a lousy finn, buys you entry into 42 clubs. We’ll festoon you with enough beads to bend the mighty oak. The proceeds, every last dime, go to the Center for Hospice and Palliative Care here in Buffalo and, for the first time this year, to the Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Two Mardi Gras central stations—Starbucks parking lot at Chippewa and Delaware and Allentown Trading Co. at Delaware and Allen—feature live radio remotes, sell $5 admission bracelets (also available at each club) and dispense beads, masks and an assortment of glowing accoutrement.
Buffalo has four seasons and we love it. What could be better on a cold February day than to come out for a parade, a run or a bike ride?
Artvoice Mardi Gras 2006 is sponsored by Southern Comfort, Heineken, 103.3 the Edge, Oldies 104, 97 Rock and Forever Elmwood. We are also indebted to the Buffalo Police Department, Buffalo City Hall, USA Track & Field, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, WNY Finish Line Services, Univera, Buffalo Blue Bicycles, Cozumel, Rich Products, Sigma Phi Epsilon at Canisius College and Delta Xi Omega at UB.
