Mardi Gras is February 17 this year, and for something exciting to give you an extra reason to visit the Gulf for a few rounds of golf at your favorite courses, there’s no more festive Gulf tradition than Mardi Gras! If you aren’t from the area, you might not know that Mardi Gras originates in Mobile, not New Orleans, and locals celebrate it with pride. Celebrations begin long before Fat Tuesday itself, and the Alabama Gulf Coast tends toward a more family friendly atmosphere for the festivities, so if you have a family, don’t be afraid to take the kids to the parades. They’ll have a blast!
There will be parades and celebrations just about any time you’re there, so you can very easily fit them around your golf schedule. You can pick and choose from a whole calendar of events, from cities close to Gulf Shores – Daphne, Fairhope, Foley, Dauphin Island, Orange Beach – that will have our events as well, scattered throughout the days leading up to the 17th and on the 17th itself. If you’d rather stay close to home, start Fat Tuesday off with the Gulf Shores Mardi Gras parade at 10 a.m., leaving you time to head off afterward for an afternoon round of golf, or to head over to LuLu’s at Homepoint Marina for a Mardi Gras Boat Parade and some live music. However much you feel like embracing the Mardi Gras season, you can find something that allows you just as much as golf fun and Mardi Gras fun as you like.