Mardi Gras isn’t just for NOLA.
Local band Big Easy Easton Brass harmonized Easton’s West Ward neighborhood on Saturday, bringing the sounds of New Orleans to the annual Mardi Gras parade.
“We just like to bring joy to the community, so we bring music,” said Megan Bucher, a member of Big Easy Easton Brass.
The parade began at 3 p.m. at Porter’s Pub & Restaurant and travelled past Two Rivers Brewing and Black & Blue: all three pubs in Easton’s “beer-muda triangle.” The parade stopped again at Porter’s Pub & Restaurant and ended in a ball upstairs at Two Rivers Brewing.
“When everybody’s walking in that parade, you’re just in the present in a way that’s hard to explain to people,” said Jeremy Joseph, who helped found and now leads the New Orleans-style band of about 40 musicians.
“We’re just literally right here right now, being a little ridiculous, and that’s okay,” he continued.
This year, Joseph and his band introduced krewes, groups that partake in Mardi Gras parades. Joseph said that while krewes in New Orleans may consist of thousands of people, krewes in Easton’s parade only need a minimum of five members to compete for a $1,000 prize.
The nine krewes that attended the parade each picked a common theme and dressed in costume together. These costumes included Bigfoots, colonial-era clothes and characters from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975).
“You don’t even have to perform,” Joseph said. “Just walk in the krewe together. Just have fun.”
Joseph said there is no particular criteria for a winning krewe, but he considers energy, creativity, costumes and music. He makes the decision with the pub owners, who helped organize the parade.
“I like to leave it a little ambiguous,” he said. “I’m looking for creativity, surprise us.”
The winning krewe, a Bethlehem-based art collective and band, This Way to the Egress, last participated in Easton’s Mardi Gras parade during its debut in 2016.
Sarah Shown, part of This Way to the Egress, says her band will use some of the money to cover some necessary expenses for its band members, like travel. They will donate the remaining money to an Allentown school band whose band room was recently flooded by a broken water heater.
“We’re going to donate it to help them get back on their feet and playing music,” Shown said.
Big Easy Easton Brass raised the prize money through paid gigs. Joseph said the band consists of volunteers and does not charge for events for the city or for good causes, but does have paying events like music festivals.
Troy Reynard, one of the owners of Two Rivers Brewing, said he helped start Easton’s Mardi Gras tradition in 2016, alongside the owners of Porter’s Pub & Restaurant and Black & Blue at the time.
Reynard and his wife “thought that Easton was the right place to have that kind of culture.”
“Easton is such an artistic town,” he said.
Reynard and other pubs also get increased business from the parade.
“It was a marketing thing for the beer-muda triangle,” Reynard said. “It’s at a time of the year where you could really use a boost in sales.”
One of Big Easy Easton Brass’ five founding members, Art Charlton, said the band first formed in 2017. Charlton said Joseph reached out to him online about creating a New Orleans-style band. The founding members then met to discuss at Two Rivers Brewing.
“This is sort of where the band was born, so we have a very soft spot for this place,” Charlton said of the pub.
Big Easy Easton Brass joined the Mardi Gras parade in 2018.
“I really enjoyed being a part of getting this thing together and am really proud of today’s parade and the amount of people involved,” Reynard said. “They all seem to have a really good time and that’s gratifying to me.”
