By Toni Miles
On Saturday, February 22, the streets of downtown Long Beach will come alive as the 2025 Carnival Association of Long Beach’s (CALB’s) annual Mardi Gras Parade rolls out at 6 pm. The parade is free to attend, and revelers will be sure to walk away with a lot of Mardi Gras throws, so those who plan to attend will need to bring a bag to collect their parade throws in and will want to stake out a spot on the parade route early for the best view and staging area to collect throws, which will include everything from Moonpies to doubloons.
Roads along the parade route will shut down at 5:30 p.m. Floats will gather at the Long Beach High School Stadium at the staging area before the parade begins, then the procession will head south on Cleveland Avenue, turn west down Railroad Street, turn south on Jeff Davis Avenue, turn east at the intersection of Jeff Davis and Highway 90 to run along the Long Beach Harbor, then turn north back up Cleveland Avenue, with a final turn west on 1st Steet, ending at the Harper McCaughan Town Green in downtown Long Beach.
CALB, headed up by this year’s Team Stirrat Brown for the 2024-25 season, has been holding numerous events and fundraisers over the past year as Carnival season approaches, and, as with each year, this year’s CALB King Scott LXIV and Queen Rosalie 2025, who will both be officially stepping into the roles held by last year (2024’s) CALB King Scott LXIV Junior Husband and Queen Rosalie Lisa Frazer, will be at the front of the parade lineup on their floats. The new king and queen will be the focus of the 2025 CALB Royal Ball, scheduled to take place the day prior to the parade on Friday, February 21.
The first CALB parade rolled through the streets of Long Beach in 1971, with the participants tossing doubloons made of wood, which are now considered among the most sought-after of collectibles, as have the .999 silver doubloons minted each year in a limited quantity.
