Carnivale Mardi Gras Celebration in Manitou Springs, Colorado

Manitou Springs Carnivale Every year, around the time of Mardi Gras in New Orleans in February, Manitou Springs has an annual event named Carnivale. It has the similar party-like atmosphere with a mumbo gumbo cookoff in Soda Springs Park and a festive parade on Manitou Avenue. Truly, this is a fun event! In this first photo gallery are my photos from 2003.
At the gumbo cookoff, one gentleman let me photograph his pot of beautiful gumbo with sausage.
Yummy gumbo!
This friendly cook told me all about the intricacies of gumbo.
This guy traveled all the way to Manitou Springs from Louisiana. Of course, he's a New Orleans Saints fan! :)
Love the bright and festive colors of Carnivale.
With everyone's luck, once the parade began, it began to snow really hard. Love this picture of a clown on stilts! My pages with parades in Manitou Springs: Olympic Relay in Manitou Springs Clydesdales Scotish Day Parade
For many events in Manitou Springs, there is a "hippie flavor" to the participants. You'll see lots of tie-dye shirts and hippies and people banging drums. It's definitely not boring! :)
A woman in green with a wizard hat.
A large and beautiful lion costume!
All the cute costumes remind me of Halloween. :)

Manitou Springs Carnivale
2004 Photos
I loved the creativity of the guys at 15 Geneva Trail for putting up the large Carnivale letters. I'm pretty sure drivers could see it as they cruised on U.S. Highway 24!

Bud Ford Jr. Waiting for the parade to start, Bud Ford Jr. was ready for the celebration and show off his Carnivale beads.

Manitou Springs Carnivale Parade I noticed people who regularly participated in the Manitou Drum Circle were at the beginning of the parade.

Snake Costume Wow! A snake. :)

Manitou Carnivale I love these multi-person costumes.

Manitou Carnivale Parade More paraders in costume.

Mardi Gras Costumes Three people in full Mardi Gras costumes on the porch of the Barker House.

Manitou Springs Carnivale Parade My favorite costume in the parade. His extended arms wiggled up and down as he walked! :)

Eagle Costume An eagle and katchina.

Hash House Harriers The Hash House Harriers.

Carnivale Parade
Manitou Carnivale Parade
The parade kept going and going. Two more shots.

Manitou Springs Police LEFT: I love how the Manitou Springs police officer posed beside his car.

RIGHT: Becky did a little dance with her beads.

Lion Costume Lion costume.

Violet Mardi Gras Costume A guy in violet having a great time!

Steve And there I was, taking pictures of everyone else having a good time.
I knew I had to take at least one token picture of me ... a self-portrait with my tie-dye shirt and some beads. Ouch! Not a fan of pictures of me. :p)

Butterfly Costume A woman in a butterfly costume with her baby.

John Boy Manitou Springs I don't remember what had happened, but John Boy was freaking out over something! :p)

Manitou Carnivale One of the drummers and her two kids. Great photo! They look so happy.

Manitou Carnivale
2005 Photos
The promotional Carnivale flyer.

Manitou Belly Dancers
Carnivale Parade Belly dancers in the parade.

Bud Ford Manitou Springs Bud Ford Oboe Ex-Manitou Springs Mayor Bud Ford plays the clarinet and oboe for the festivies!

Manitou Carnivale Parade

Yippee!
Manitou Carnivale
Rocks The House! :)
(It was fun making that with different HTML colors.)
Plenty of great costumes and fun people in the parade.

Boki dressed as a kangaroo, and he had his cat named Kui in his pouch. Notice Kui's cute kangaroo ears in the right photo! :)

A long-haired hippie woman.

Drummers At Carnivale When the parade ended, people banged their drums inside the Soda Springs Park Pavillion.

Paint With Beard Hair There was a street artist who used his beard to make his painting! Wow.

Edie Mamie Japhy Lastly, Evie, Mamie and Japhy participated in the parade in this cardboard car. So cute!