Every year, in the midst of the end-of-winter-beginning-of-spring chill, there comes an outlet for the cabin fever that has welled up over the past months. People of the city of St. Louis make the trek downtown to Soulard to partake in parades, music and general reverie. What is the event that draws the masses? The annual Mardi Gras celebration.

Histories of where exactly Mardi Gras started are varied, but it’s generally agreed that Mardi Gras originally began as a time for Christians to let off steam before entering the season of Lent. Once the 40 days of Lent rolled around on Ash Wednesday, Christians were supposed to fast and be penitent, and Mardi Gras was a day of indulgence to bring in the season. Traditionally, Mardi Gras-which is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’-was a one-day event that took place on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. These days, however, Mardi Gras has become a weekend-long series of parties for all ages-although the events in Soulard do tend to appeal more to the 21+ crowd.

In the United States, New Orleans has the reputation of being the place to go for Mardi Gras festivities. However, St. Louis has held a strong second to New Orleans in regards to its own Mardi Gras events. Soulard becomes draped in green, gold and purple, with revelers strutting about wearing beads, masks and even costumes. It’s not surprising that New Orleans and St. Louis would have the biggest celebrations, considering that both cities were originally French colonies, and would share the traditions brought to the colonies by French settlers.

Although the festival itself has been around for centuries, within St. Louis, Mardi Gras is still fairly new. According to stlouis.com, it was only about 30 years ago that regulars at a bar in St. Louis created their own mini version of Mardi Gras, trekking from bar to bar. That first group of celebrants consisted of only 50 people, but now entering its fourth decade, the celebration draws half a million people from all around the country. While mid-February brings the main events of Mardi Gras, the lead-up begins on Jan. 6, with the start of Carnival. From that point on, Soulard hosts a series of cookouts, wine tastings, smaller parades and an art fair for kids.

Mardi Gras Inc., which puts on the festival in St. Louis, only employs three paid staff members, but the hundreds of volunteers they get each year more than make up for that with the help they provide.

“This literally could not happen without the volunteers,” Mardi Gras Inc.’s Mack Bradley said. “They put in many long, long days of truly tireless work.”

Among the volunteers’ duties are organizing the parade, securing the parade route, setting up tents for various events, manning the office and, of course, taking care of clean-up after the festivities have past. Mardi Gras planning goes on all year, it gets busier as it gets closer.

“In the four months or so prior, [preparations] intensify considerably,” Bradley said.

Parade krewes must design and build floats, making sure to fit in with the year’s theme (Famous Couples is this year’s), adhere to safety requirements and figure out how to discreetly attach the required Porta-Potty to each of the 100 floats. Safety and crowd control procedures are planned out, in order to ensure a positive experience for all attendants.

“We work hand-in-glove with the city and police,” Bradley said. “They secure the festival area with Jersey barriers at neighborhood entries, and security volunteers at checkpoints around the neighborhood.”

Mardi Gras-goers are forbidden from bringing in bottles, cans and coolers, for the reason that they could be potential weapons. In recent years, the parade was moved up in the day from 2 p.m. to 11 a.m., and the parade route itself was relocated from inside Soulard to 7th Street.

“[The changes] help with crowd control…they provide an area to accommodate a greater amount of people,” Bradley said.

The River City Grand Parade will be taking place Saturday, Feb. 13. The MetroLink will be running a shuttle from the Scottrade Center Metro stop to Soulard from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., for $5 round-trip.