It’s easy to say the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association’s parade is the area’s biggest and leave it at that. It might also be the city’s most exuberant parade, though this is a more subjective ranking.

MAMGA’s Mammoth Parade runs the longest route and features the most floats and other units. It’s not even close. But that still underplays the sheer energy of the thing. See for yourself in the accompanying photo gallery.

It was 2 p.m. when the parade began with a westward loop out Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. and back to downtown via St. Stephens Road and Spring Hill Ave. It was nearly two hours later when floats began making their way up Royal Street, still not quite in the home stretch, and their riders were hurling throws as if trying to lighten a sinking ship.

MoonPies and Little Debbie cakes rained by the box – the name-brand ones, mind you. And the riders, two hours into the game, were still throwing heat at the hands reaching out from second-story balconies and parking-deck ledges.

MAMGA doesn’t quite close out a busy Fat Tuesday in Mobile, which also features appearances by the Order of Athena, the Knights of Revelry, the royal parade of King Felix III, the Comic Cowboys and final group of the day, the Order of Myths. But it would be hard to argue that it’s not the climax of the day.

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