Managing San Diego's Mardi Gras Parade | The Blonde Animal Ambassador

mode de vie fit shanna managing san diego mardi gras parade overview — The parade in action. All photos courtesy of McFarlane Promotions.

Let me start by saying, I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS GETTING MYSELF INTO WHEN I SAID YES! I mean, I love the idea of Mardi Gras… I love helping my friends (especially my sweet friend who brought me into this project) and I love organizing!

Initially I thought I would be assisting with finding and hiring parade talent. I’m not really sure how it happened that the parade was suddenly thrown in my lap. 🙂 And I totally mean this in a good way- I honestly felt so special. McFarlane Promotions, one of the coolest, neatest event planning companies was relying solely on me to create and master mind San Diego’s yearly Mardi Gras parade!

The goal: to bring as many parade entries and participants as possible to San Diego’s Mardi Gras parade in the Gaslamp District. Dancers, hoopers, fire trucks, strippers, you name it- we had a little bit of everything in our parade.

I started my work calling and emailing just about every downtown San Diego business as possible. Then I spread my search throughout the county and up to LA. I found some amazing dancers and talent in LA that we brought in as hired acts. Anything extraordinary and out of the ordinary we wanted. For McFarlane’s parties: the weirder the better. And trust me on this one, the crowds LOVE IT!

When I get in the zone, I just go with it. I focus and focus and work with tunnel vision. I try to focus day to day, especially when I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing LOL. And this was exactly how my Mardi Gras management worked.

I learned something new everyday. I had ZERO time to be bored which I loved! I worked with so many different people, groups of talent, city officials and police… my head was spinning for a good month even after my parade.

So parade management takes your skills to a whole other level. You’re trying to balance being nice with basically, being a bitch because hey… literally NO ONE turns their stuff in on time. UGH. It drives me crazy when people say they’ll get me the needed information and then turn it in two months late or not at all.

Well, lucky for me, I was supported by McFarlane. No paperwork, no parade. I was also fortunate because most of our parade participants were really great about letting me drive them crazy for all of their missing signatures, waivers, etc.

Could I describe how my parade looked and felt behind the scenes? UTTER CHAOS! CRAZINESS! Somewhere between a dream and nightmare, I worked from 4am to past midnight directing traffic, floats, people, artists, parade talent and vendors.

Was I freaked out at becoming the head of a group of 1200 unique artists, business representatives and musicians? YES!

Was I totally not sure what I was doing and trying to figure out how things went along the way? YES!

Did I want to cry and pull my hair out on a few occasions as I yelled at the top of my lungs to keep my parade moving? YES!

Did I drive my poor fiancé crazy with late nights of zero sleep and stressful worrying? YES!

But did I let any of the negative stop me? NO!

I just kept going, I worked extremely hard and never got negative.

Mardi Gras taught me a great lesson. My skills were put to the ultimate test. I was forced to draw upon patience I did not think I had. I went blindly into the entire project but came out of it knowing so many useful things about life and work and business relationships.

Yes, yes, my parade management taught me a lot of useful things. But most of all, it taught me TO BELIEVE IN MYSELF. To keep going, to reach for the stars and never look back.

Not to mention, I literally had zero time to look back!

So how did my parade finish? We came out of our event ranked 3rd in the world next to the number two, New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade… and number one, Rio De Janeiro parade! YAY!

mode de vie fit shanna managing san diego mardi gras parade — A historical firetruck, one of my favorites!

mode de vie fit shanna managing san diego mardi gras parade dancers — We have some of the best talent in the country right here in San Diego’s Mardi Gras Parade!

So the point of my story really is to say, BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! Believe in your abilities to go above and beyond. Trust your skills, trust your instincts. Never give up on yourself and don’t be afraid to put yourself outside of your comfort zone. You never know what you will learn nor where it can lead you in life.

I went on to head the parade a second year in a row with an even higher turnout and participation list! This past year McFarlane again asked for my assistance but this time I had to say no because of my blog :). I now have ZERO time on my hands for anything but teaching, writing and Anton and our yorkies. 🙂 But it did not stop me from turning my experience into a blog and riding in my old parade, representing my new blog and all of my awesome readers!

I hope my story inspires YOU to get out of your comfort zone to pursue a career goal, a curiosity, a dream, anything at all you have your sights set on. I truly believe that great things happen for those who are willing to stay positive and work their hardest. Hard work, dedication and a positive mindset can take us to the most awesome of places… we just have to say YES and GO FOR IT!