BATON ROUGE -- The Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade filled just about every sidewalk in downtown Baton Rouge with pink as many came to take in one of the biggest, and undoubtedly one of the pinkest, Mardi Gras parades there is.

This year's parade featured over 70 floats, many of them paying tribute to Smiley Anders, a longtime columnist for The Advocate and a Spanish Town resident, who passed away in 2024.

"Being a fan of Smiley, we did one of his articles. It's something that we created and we have a great crew that helped us do all this," Krewe of Mischief spokesman Rudy Ramirez said.

Throughout the parade, people were dancing, tossing and catching Mardi Gras Beads, cheering, and having a great time.

"Man, it's really just a big party. I don't know how to explain it. It takes a bunch of different cultures and everyone getting together and we all just have a good time," Parade attendee Alexis Didier said.

The Spanish Town Mardi Gras celebrations are organized by the Mystic Krewe for the Preservation of Lagniappe in Louisiana.

"All the money that we raise stays here locally between veterans, family, kids, animals. It all stays here locally to support the community," parade judge Christian Rogers said.