| March 1st, 2016

Tallahassee Gets a Taste of New Orleans

By: journeymagazine

New Orleans Comes to Tallahassee

Words By: DeVante Webb

Greeted with vibrant hip-hop dance moves from the young ladies of Nims Middle School and the smiles and claps of excited event goers, Railroad Square Tallahassee welcomed families and friends of the Tallahassee community Sunday to their 7th annual ArtiGras.

Known as a celebration of New Orleans style art, food and music, ArtiGras brings the exciting street festival culture of New Orleans to small-town Tallahassee.

The festival was completely free to anyone who decided to stop by and lasted from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28 and offered the crowd with more than enough activities to partake in.

Last years celebration brought over 7,000 people ready to party and it was obvious that the word spread quickly that the party was happening again.

The small streets, bars, café shops and food trucks, thrift stores and art studios were quickly filled with event goers

Brianna McCrea, student at Florida A&M University, said it was her first time even attending Railroad Square and that attending ArtiGras was the perfect atmosphere to welcome her in.

“My friends told me how much fun they had last year and basically persuaded me in to coming,” chuckled McCrea. “But I am glad that I did because the thrift shops here are amazing and the live music makes the shopping more exciting.”

Guests who attended the celebration were also welcomed to participate in a musical crowd parade and for the lucky ones who were over 21 years of age, got to see a live concert from local group, The Big Easy.

Many members of the crowd seemed to be most interested and impressed with the food at the event.

Aside from the normal ice-cream trucks and non-stop party at Proof brewing Company, guests were pulled into the assortment of New Orleans styled food trucks.

One of the most popular items sold were the beignets. Similar to funnel cakes and doughnuts, the beignets were shallow cubes of fried dough with heavy layers of powdered sugar on top.

“Oh my gosh. I love sweets and you always hear about trying beignets whenever someone mentions New Orleans,” said event-goer and Tallahassee resident, Jennifer Bradley.

Bradley is a current student at Florida State University and was not aware that the event was happening until driving past on the way to a friends house.

“Honestly, everything tonight was just amazing. From the music and dancing, to the crowd participation to the decorations and of course the food, the atmosphere just went perfect on this Saturday night. ArtiGras is something that I definitely recommend attending next year.”