Carnival Season Begins: Mississippi Coast gears up for Mardi Gras

January 6, 2020

It’s not every day you get to meet a queen, but that’s just what happened to these lucky visitors as they streamed into the Coastal Mississippi Mardi Gras.

Susan Cain, the 1988 Gulf Coast Carnival Association Queen, was happy to share her first-hand experiences of her reign.

Hurricane Katrina destroyed all of her keepsakes from that magical Mardi Gras back in 1988, but she did manage to round up this picture-perfect moment that year with GCCA King Billy Creel – a moment in time no storm could wipe away.

Cain’s official reign as queen is over, but she has served as a 32-year ambassador for the Gulf Coast Carnival Association, and continues to do so today.

Speaking about her life-long love for Mardi Gras, Cain says, “I learned about Mardi Gras because my dad used to love to go to New Orleans so we would go to New Orleans, and one time we were coming back from New Orleans. We were in Waveland, and they were having a Waveland parade. It was different from what we experience here, but we just pulled over on the side of the road and saw some floats. We caught beads, and that was really my first experience with Mardi Gras.”

Visitors can get a taste of this annual Coast-wide tradition by checking out relics at the new Mardi Gras Museum in Biloxi.

Although the museum has only been open for two months, people from all over want to see what all the glitz and glam surrounding Carnival Season is all about.

Tammy Smith, the Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Carnival Association, tells us with Carnival season upon us, more visitors are rolling into the museum, and getting a taste of what Mardi Gras is all about.

“The first visitor, the first person, to sign our visitor book was from Germany,” Smith says. “She was visiting her grandparents from Ocean Springs. We’ve had people from Central America talking about Carnival, and it’s really interesting to find out that there are similar celebrations in other countries. Germany has something that’s done this time of year also. Every day is just… it’s exciting to come to work every day, because I never know who I’m going to meet or where they’re from.”