Mardi Gras might be officially over, but the on-again, off-again scrum between Mobile and New Orleans over Carnival supremacy could be reignited thanks for a Facebook post that is going viral Wednesday.
The post is a picture taken outside a French Quarter bar that reads, “Behave or we’ll send you to Mobile for Mardi Gras – Mngmt.”
It’s even caught the attention of Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who is now inviting New Orleans residents to visit Mobile next year and enjoy what the city brands as “Birthplace of Mardi Gras.”
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“We just welcomed over a million people to downtown Mobile for 19 days of parades and celebrations,” Stimpson said in a statement. “Our goal was to host a safe and family-friendly Mardi Gras, and we did that.”
He added, “Next year, we would be more than happy to accept a few more visitors from New Orleans — home of the second oldest organized Mardi Gras celebration in the United States.”
The Facebook post was submitted to NOLA A.F., a page dedicated to taking an “unconventional look” at New Orleans. It has been around since 2016, and has 150,000 followers.
Tim Shea Carroll, founder and owner of NOLA AF LLC, said he took the picture outside of the Upper Quarter Bar and posted it to Instagram and Facebook. While the picture did not elicit much reaction on Instagram, it has since gone viral on Facebook to the point where it’s become one of the most viewed posts on that page since its inception.
“Traffic wise and analytical wise, it’s definitely the Top 5 right now and probably trending to be the No. 1 post of all time,” said Carroll. “I’m not sure why. (The Mardi Gras battle) has been going on for years.”
Carroll, who says he has family in Mobile and grew up spending summers on the Alabama Gulf Coast, said that in New Orleans “none of us have any problems with Mobile.” He said the owner of the Upper Quarter Bar, who could not be immediate reached for comment by AL.com, thought the reaction to the sign was “hysterical.” The image has generated close to 900 comments.
“It will always get a reaction over a battle over who created Mardi Gras first,” said Carroll. “It’s a debate that will never end.”
Carroll said he “loved” the mayor’s reaction.
“I absolutely love it and that’s the kind of stuff (we want),” he said. “Some people get a little heated and I’ll monitor some of those comments. Once you get angry, (my Facebook page) is not the place for this. I love that. I love that debate right there.”
Indeed some of the comments, Carroll admitted, had gotten salty. A quick view of the comment page shows some people calling Mobilians “jealous,” while others noted that Mobile was the safer Mardi Gras alternative. Mobile city officials said there were no major crime problems in Mobile during Mardi Gras, unlike in New Orleans where there were multiple shootings that occurred along parade routes including a fatal shooting along St. Charles Avenue during the Bacchus parade on Sunday.
The friendly banter over Mardi Gras between the two cities has been somewhat quiet in recent years. The most notable dust up occurred in 2018, when Alabama tourism officials paid for 10 billboards in southern Mississippi and Louisiana to troll New Orleans by listing the mileage distance to “America’s Original Mardi Gras” of Mobile.
In 2015, Stimpson had a billboard placed on Interstate 10 in downtown Mobile that advertised the city as the “birthplace” of Mardi Gras, recognizing the holiday’s origins in Mobile in 1703.
The two cities have long attempted to claim the holiday as their own. While New Orleans officials acknowledge the annual pre-Lenten festival roots to Mobile, they will also point out that the annual tradition has become a worldwide sensation due to New Orleans.
