Fat Tuesday is next week, and there are Mardi Gras celebrations around the region. Groups in Fayetteville and Eureka Springs will both host parties and parades the weekend before, with Fayetteville Mardi Gras also hosting a pub and grub crawl down Dickson Street on Feb. 17.
On the day itself, Chaddy Kumpe Platt is involved in both celebrations — as an organizer for Fayetteville and a musician for Eureka. She visited Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis in the Bruce and Ann Applegate News Studio One to talk about how she'll be letting the good times roll. She says the pub and grub crawl is very faithful to the holiday’s roots, especially how they manifest in The Big Easy.
Chaddy Kumpe Platt: We’ll go from bar to bar and restaurant to restaurant, throwing beads, singing some Cajun classics, and we have the big drums and everything. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Jack Travis: So tell me about that — maybe more New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition, right? Like it’s not always a big parade. You were just telling me about this. Sometimes it’s a smaller gathering of second line?
Kumpe Platt: Yeah, they call it a second line when you’re just parading through the streets and playing music. People tend to start going along with you, and that’s what really is going to be happening on Fat Tuesday in Fayetteville.
So we’ll have the Saturday Parade of Fools at 2 p.m., which is very family-friendly. Bring out the kids, bring out the dogs, mom and pop — everybody can come and watch the parade. People are throwing beads, and it’s very colorful and fun. And it’s usually only about 2 to 3 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon.
And then Tuesday night, people will gather on Dickson Street. We’ll have a way that you can earn points by going to each place and getting your stamp done, and earn some prizes for participating in the pub and grub crawl. So the restaurants and bars on Dickson are participating with the Fayetteville Mardi Gras Committee to create the Fat Tuesday pub and grub crawl.
Travis: That sounds like it will be a very fun time.
Kumpe Platt: It was last year. It was a lot of fun, and that was the first year that we had done the pub crawl part. Years ago, that was the only part of it. And then we added the Saturday parade, and that has kind of eclipsed the Tuesday night activities. But we’re trying to do both. So it’s fun.
Travis: And then you, Chaddy, will also be in Eureka Springs as well with your band Ultra Suede.
Kumpe Platt: That’s right. They asked us to play their masquerade ball this year on Friday the 13th. So let’s hope that’s not going to be bad luck, weather-wise. At the Inn of the Ozarks in Eureka, Ultra we’ll be playing the masquerade ball. And this year the theme is hearts, so it’ll be lots of red and hearts and love in the air. And then the next day, they’ve asked us to be the grand marshals of their parade. And Eureka knows how to do a parade, so I’m really looking forward to that.
Travis: That’s a big role.
Kumpe Platt: Well, you know, I have to practice my queen wave.
Travis: I was going to say, what goes into being a grand marshal of a parade?
Kumpe Platt: Just a figurehead, really. Kyle Kellams has been the grand marshal of our local parade. Jason Sewell, who’s also in Ultra Suede with me, has been the grand marshal of the Fayetteville parade. Joe Fennell, formerly of Jose’s, Dan Skoff. So it’s a figurehead — not a whole lot of responsibility, which I like.
Travis: OK, you said you think the Fayetteville Mardi Gras celebration in one form or another has been going on for more than 30 years now?
Kumpe Platt: Yes.
Travis: What is keeping you all going? Obviously, Mardi Gras is a very traditional holiday with roots going back to the Catholic Church and—
Kumpe Platt: Probably older than that because it's a celebration of the coming of spring. Yes. So a lot of people get confused about Mardi Gras because it is on a different date every year. So what it is based on is the beginning of lent. So lent ends on Easter. So Easter is determined by the first full moon, the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, if that makes sense.
Travis: That does make sense.
Kumpe Platt: So yeah, you got spring starting March 20th, 21st right there. Then you have the full moon, and then that determines which Sunday is going to be Easter. And then forty days back from that is Fat Tuesday.
Travis: Gotcha. So what keeps you coming back? Because obviously this organization, Fayetteville Mardi Gras has grown in that thirty years. I mean, I was looking at y'all's website and there are so many different crews, the little organizations that host the parade floats. There are so many crews in that, y'all have expanded so much. What's driving that?
Kumpe Platt: Well, I think it’s good fun. It’s an opportunity to be creative with friends. So it’s a good team-building exercise for companies to do — maybe just get a pickup truck and make it look fabulous, or a trailer — and every year trying to come up with a new and better float. I think last year we had something like 33 floats, which was huge, because when it started, it was just the Demented Krewe. Eureka was started by the Krewe of Krazo, and Fayetteville was started by the Demented Krewe.
But now I have the Krewe of Barkus, there’s the Krewe de Roo, there’s the boat, there’s all different kinds of krewes now. And one year when it snowed, Eureka’s parade got canceled, and they drove their floats over here in the snow through the mountains to be in our parade, so that was cool.
Travis: Oh wow. How does it feel to be such an integral part of one of your favorite holidays in your town? To really help your neighbors celebrate Mardi Gras?
Kumpe Platt: Well, one of the things I love about our Fayetteville Mardi Gras, Jack, is that we do it all for charity. Every year, a different nonprofit is chosen by that year’s king and queen. It’s been everything from the Humane Society. In the last couple of years, it’s been Canopy NWA. But we’ve done Peace at Home women’s shelter. So not only are you having a good time, getting an opportunity to be creative, getting a chance to wave to all the kids in the audience when you’re going by. But at the end of it all, we get to give a big fat check to a nonprofit.
Travis: Is it Canopy this year too?
Kumpe Platt: It is. They were so good last year, bringing out the volunteers, helping with the organization of the parade and everything. So the folks that were king and queen chose them again.
Travis: And then anyone that visits your website will also see a huge list of sponsors you're supporting. So many downtown local businesses, driving all that traffic to their doorsteps, but also with the pub crawl, right? You're encouraging people to go and engage with these businesses.
Kumpe Platt: Yeah. So people who have businesses along Dickson and the square will get business on Saturday, and then they'll get more business on Tuesday night.
Travis: That's great. That's so awesome. So this might be a given, given your role, but what are you most excited for in these next couple of weeks?
Kumpe Platt: I am very excited about both the masquerade ball and the chance to be grand marshal. I'm very excited about both. And this is not the first time that Ultra Suede has played Eureka's Mardi Gras celebration. We played it a few times when it was at the Basin Park, at the very top and at the Crescent. And so I know that they know how to do it. They know how to have a good time. They know how to dress up and do all the things. So Eureka is just a really, really fun place to play.
Travis: Okay, let's say someone is traveling to northwest Arkansas, right? They don't live in Fayetteville. They don't live in Eureka, but they're visiting this region. Which one do you recommend they go to?
Kumpe Platt: I just, you know, that's like Sophie's choice, Jack. I mean, they both happened at the same time, on the same day, 2 p.m. on Saturday. So there's really no way to be in both places at the same time, and they're both going to be great. If you've been to the Fayetteville one several times, maybe go to Eureka for a change, or vice versa.
I can tell you that it's going to be easier to get a hotel room in Fayetteville because Eureka is booking up because it's Valentine's Day as well as Mardi Gras. I know because I was trying to get a hotel room for Saturday and they're mostly sold out. So Eureka is going to be hopping on that weekend for sure.
Travis: All right, get on it if you want to get to Eureka.
Kumpe Platt: Otherwise, just come on out in Fayetteville.
That was Chaddy Platt speaking with Ozarks largest Jack Travis. You can visit FayettevilleMardiGras.com and Eureka Springs’ Mardi Gras Facebook page for more information about the upcoming happenings.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
