Mobile’s 2025 Mardi Gras celebrations got off to an emphatic start Friday night as enthusiastic crowds lined downtown sidewalks for the Conde Cavaliers’ parade.

The Cavaliers rolled with the theme “You Give Love a Bad Name,” a nod to the fact it was Valentine’s Day. Some of the floats took that in a musical direction, with nods to Elvis (“Heartbreak Hotel”), Justin Timberlake (“Cry Me a River”) and Gloria Gaynor (“I Will Survive”). But it was an eclectic collection overall, with dubious romantic role models such as Pepe Le Pew in the mix.

The “boom boom” lived up to the name with plenty of musical units such as marching bands – including the University of South Alabama’s Jaguar Marching Band – and mohawked drummer Chico, an icon of the parading season.

Thanks in part to mild temperatures – which are projected to drop considerably by the time the parading season really kicks into gear late next week – crowds were heavy, at least at the east end of the route along Conti, Royal and Conception Streets. Spots where a person might easily have found a place right on the barricades, in some years, were lined with onlookers four and five deep.

Not everyone had the smoothest experience. As usual, the first night of the season was a big one for towing. Purple and yellow signs along the parade route and some side streets warn that those streets become no-parking zones two hours before the start of any parade, so the cutoff for a typical 6:30 evening parade is 4:30 p.m.

A few minutes before that, tow trucks and police began circulating along the affected streets amid a flurry of chirping sirens. The warning period didn’t last long: Promptly at 4:30 p.m., the flatbeds began loading cars as officers wrote tickets.

Otherwise, there was little sign of trouble as the season began. In France they say, “Laissez le bon temps rouler.” In Mobile, they phrase it a little differently: “The lid has come off.” As of Friday night, it’s off.

Saturday was to bring more parades to downtown streets: The Bayport Parading Society and the Mystic DJ Riders at 2:30 p.m., and later the Pharoahs Mystic Society and the Conde Explorers at 6:30 p.m.

After that comes a break until Thursday, Feb. 20, when the Order of Polka Dots kicks off a run of almost daily parades leading up to Fat Tuesday on March 4. For a full schedule of major parades in the area, click here.

For ongoing Mardi Gras coverage on AL.com, click here.