“If Mardi Gras happens, and I do think it will, I think it is going to be a huge event, I think you are going to see a lot of people coming, there is a lot of penned-up demand.”
That is what President and CEO of Kern Studios and Mardi Gras World, Barry Kern told WWL’s Dave Cohen on Friday.
On Thursday, Kern and many Captains from the city’s 34 parading organizations attended a meeting of Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s Mardi Gras Advisory Committee.
At that meeting, Mayor Cantrell says her administration is doing everything it can to ensure Mardi Gras will happen next year.
“I think we all continue to plan, and as for the Captains of the organizations I work for, everyone is full-steam-ahead, Mardi Gras is happening, and we are moving forward as if it is happening, and frankly, I think that is the best way,” said Kern.
He says the mayor stopped short of saying Mardi Gras will definitely happen because there is no telling what will happen with the pandemic between now and Fat Tuesday.
“The mayor could have told us yesterday that we are definitely having Mardi Gras, but I don’t think the mayor is in any position to tells us we can definitely do anything,” said Kern.
At the advisory meeting, mayor Cantrell entertained the idea of possibly requiring everyone who comes to celebrate Mardi Gras to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. She however did not give exact plans of how the logistics of such a plan will work.
Kern tells WWL he isn’t worried about a fifth COVID surge canceling Mardi Gras.
“So I would say that you probably will have a pretty safe crowd or a crowd that is vaccinated and/or not infected, so I doubt that we are going to get some kind of spike of something, or are going to see something negative as it relates to it,” said Kern. “And I think that is what the mayor and Dr. Avegno were talking about yesterday, they say, listen we want to celebrate Mardi Gras but we want to be sure to approach it in the right way.”