Mardi Gras

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!! Every year, Galveston Island hosts its own Mardi Gras celebration—and you don’t want to miss it!

As the third largest Mardi Gras celebration in the United States, Mardi Gras Galveston attracts an estimated 300,000 attendees every year. The party covers the entirety of two weekends leading up to Fat Tuesday and features daily and nightly parades, dozens of concerts, balcony parties, masked balls, street vendors, and much more. For the nights of both weekends, downtown Galveston will be full of merriment, music, and good-natured mayhem.

But families are welcome to the party as well. The daylight hours will feature kid-friendly events such as live music, children’s parades, a pet parade, and a 1K run/walk—all of which will help raise money for local charities, such as the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Galveston’s Mardi Gras celebrations began in the late 1800s and quickly gained in size and popularity, becoming a nationwide phenomenon and continuing until the early 1940s, when the economic difficulties arising from escalation of World War II forced the city to abandon the yearly celebration.

But in 1985, the party was restarted—and since then, it’s been going stronger than ever. Every year, visitors from all over the country make their way to downtown Galveston to eat and dance and be merry.

The first weekend will feature parades and entertainment on both the Seawall and the Strand District in downtown Galveston.

The second weekends festivities are located in the Historic Strand District in downtown Galveston.