Future of Mardi Gras will depend on community

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Feb. 4, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Bemidji's 12-year-old Mardi Gras North celebration could become just another community festival which lived out its time and fell by the wayside.

Faced with unusual circumstances that have slimmed down the number of organizers who plan the annual event, the unofficial committee has resorted this year to only supporting community events planned for Friday through Tuesday. They will not take an active role in the activities.

Mardi Gras North is a Bemidji festival started in 1986 to celebrate the connection of Bemidji and New Orleans -- the site most associated with a large Mardi Gras celebration -- through the Mississippi River, to celebrate keeping the river's environment clean and to celebrate nature's regeneration process during winter.

The local celebration was an offshoot event of the group called Mississippi River Revival, which is concerned with cleaning up the environment of the nation's most famous river.

In 1985, a few members of the local group decided, in addition to the annual summer festival held to honor the Mississippi River, there should be a winter festival also held in honor of the river and to celebrate keeping it clean.

Mardi Gras season seemed to be a natural selection for the winter festival, local organizer Anne Sliney said. And since the first celebration, the relationship between New Orleans and Bemidji grew, and the event seemed to also, until recently.

Due to several illnesses and other personal tragedies, Sliney said, the unofficial organization that worked together was unable to plan a celebration for 1997.

"Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to sponsor any events ourselves," Sliney said. "But we wanted to support those who are celebrating Mardi Gras."

However, as for the future of the event, Sliney said it depends on the reaction of the community. If Bemidji residents miss it, there may be a renewed focus for it next year, or the celebration of the Mississippi may be modified to fit some other season. But Sliney said she hopes not, because she liked the timing with Mardi Gras season.

"Winter can look so cold, even like death. And yet if you understand how nature works, winter is a time of regeneration or rebirth," Sliney said. "That's what Mardi Gras celebrates ... the time before Lent, which celebrates the rebirth of upcoming Easter."

Bemidji Mayor Doug Peterson and Bemidji Area Chamber of Commerce Administrative Director Larry Young both said the community would lose something valuable if the event was discontinued. But both said they would also like to see the Mardi Gras North committee work more with their offices so they could provide more support.

"Any time you lose an event that brings people into the community it is a loss to (Bemidji)," Young said. "But some events only go a few years because there are only a couple of people willing to drive it further. As a 20-year resident (of Bemidji), I've seen a number of events, supported by only a couple of enthusiastic people, run out of steam."

Young said the Chamber has never participated much in the planning of the event, and that it continues from year to year because of the hard work put in by a handful of people.

"Maybe they just don't have the people to hand the baton off to," he said.

Peterson said he would be "disappointed" if the celebration were to be discontinued, but suggested maybe more people need to be involved and a better communication network established.

"I think there's some real possibilities, and I would hate to see the Mardi Gras discontinued," Peterson said. "Maybe it needs to be turned over and overseen by the Chamber, or the Downtown Development Authority or the Jaycees. There's no shortage of people in Bemidji who are ready, willing and able to help with events that shorten winter."

After returning from the closing ceremonies of the St. Paul Winter Carnival this past weekend, he said he wondered whether the Mardi Gras North, Bemidji Polar Daze and some type of winter carnival could not be combined to make one, multi-week event.

"If there's anything I can do to make it succeed, I'm willing," Peterson said.

"The future will depend on how the people in the community feel about it," Sliney said. "the Mardi Gras feels like a more intimate community event. It was like a big family celebration. That's what it was like to me, and I wouldn't want to see that changed."