The City of Pensacola is rolling out new safety measures ahead of the Mardi Gras parades this weekend, with extended road closures to help ensure the safety of the tens of thousands expected to attend.
While the Mardi Gras parade routes remain unchanged, the safety perimeter is expanding.
Danny Zimmern, President of Pensacola Mardi Gras, explains why the modification is happening now.
“The drama in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve has changed how Pensacola is approaching the parade for this coming weekend," he said. "It really is drastically different. Streets are going to close earlier. All of the access around the parade itself is going to be really, really restricted.”
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said, “Unfortunately sometimes it takes seeing a tragedy in real time and so close to us, to our neighbors for us to say, ‘you know, hey, enough’s enough,’ and we’ve got to make some changes that we feel were certainly necessary.”
One of those changes includes closing Main Street one hour before each parade.
“If you’re accustomed to taking Main Street, it’s going to be to go either up 9th Avenue to Cervantes or A street to Cervantes," explained Pensacola Police Chief Kevin Christman. "Those are wide, big state roads that are easily accessible.”
In addition to the road closures, the safety zone around the parade route is expanding.
“We are actually extending the box, from one block to the west from Reus to DeVilliers street and one block to the east Jefferson to Tarragona street," said Reeves. "That will happen three hours prior, and we are extending one block further out east and west. What freeing up Jefferson and Reus Streets does for us from an emergency-responder standpoint is if something were to happen, we have much cleaner access going up and down that we didn’t have before because the square was a little bit too tight."
Another major change involves the towing of vehicles left along the parade route.
“If your vehicle is parked in these spots on the parade day, expect to have it towed... If it is there at 5:30 [p.m.] for the 7 p.m. Friday parade, you can expect that it will be towed. And for the Saturday parade, three hours before, on Saturday, we are not gonna have empty vehicles that we can’t account for sitting in the middle of 100,000 people. We’re just not gonna do it,” Reeves continued.
Last year’s Mardi Gras parade attendance was estimated at around 80,000 people, and Danny Zimmern expects a similar crowd size this year.
Mayor Reeves said the city is ready.
“We expect another big crowd and certainly excited for it," he added. "These are the types of events that make Pensacola great and what makes people enjoy visiting here and enjoy living here. So we feel a little more confident going into it knowing that our safety has increased as well and that we feel more at ease in the sense that we have some improvements."
On Friday, the Krewe of Lafitte Illuminated Mardi Gras Parade kicks off at 7:30 p.m., with road closures starting at 5:30 p.m.. On Saturday, the Pensacola Grand Mardi Gras Parade begins at 2 p.m., with road closures starting at 11 a.m.
In summary, Main Street will close one hour before each parade and reopen once it ends. Parking is strictly prohibited along the parade route, including the City Hall parking lot. Any vehicles left on the route will be towed. To avoid parade traffic, officials suggest using 9th Avenue or A Street to reach Cervantes Street for east-west travel.
