Sugar Bowl Festivities To Include Mardi Gras Parade

Organizers of the January 2 Nokia Sugar Bowl are planning a “Mardi Gras-style parade” in downtown Atlanta on New Year’s Eve that will include floats, marching bands, giant balloons and beads, according to Leon Stafford of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. New Orleans-based Mardi Gras Productions, which is planning the parade, will also hold an after-party at the Georgia World Congress Center. Tickets for the party will cost $150, with the proceeds going to post-Hurricane Katrina rebuilding funds. Mardi Gras Productions and Sugar Bowl officials worked together to attract sponsors for the $750,000 event, which include Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola and BellSouth, along with Comcast, Anheuser-Busch and Nokia. WXIA-NBC will be the media sponsor (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 12/13).