Happy Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, as it’s usually known! While today is the official day, celebrations started ahead of time this past weekend. On Saturday, Old Sacramento came alive with the Old Sacramento Mardi Gras event, organized by the Old Sacramento Business Association. Participating locations provided various amenities to ticket holders—including free cover, food & drink specials, and live music (with the occasional strand of beads thrown in).

It was great fun to see the streets of Old Sacramento alive and bustling, and attendees getting into the mood with elaborate masks, beads, and Mardi Gras colors. After bopping around from spot to spot for a bit—stopping in at Delta King, River City Saloon, and Fat City—we settled in for the evening at Café New Orleans (an extra-appropriate spot, given the holiday’s Southern origins!), where we were directed downstairs to the Mark Twain Lounge for the Mardi Gras celebration. After picking up a Dixie Beer at the bar, we seated ourselves, front row, at one of the red-table-clothed tables and got lost in the sounds of Sabor Jazz—a Sacramento group with a funky, upbeat style—until finally deciding to call it a night. All-in-all a fun, festive evening, bringing the colorful celebration of Mardi Gras to Old Sacramento.

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Find more detail on this event along with many more at Sacramento365.com, the year-round source for Sacramento events.

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Written by Sacramento365.com Assistant Editor, Alison Kranz

Photographs by Sacramento photographer Nicholas Wray