Salt Lake holds First Night bash with a New Orleans flair

Salt Lake City ushered in the new year in Mardi Gras style Saturday, just months after Hurricane Katrina tore apart the annual festival's American hometown.

Flashy lights, Mardi Gras beads and a zydeco band straight from New Orleans provided a Deep South flair to Salt Lake City's First Night, Utah's biggest New Year's Eve event. Organizers booked the band Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas months before the hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast but decided to transform the entire event into a Mardi Gras theme after the mighty storm.

"After it hit, we thought, 'Why not turn this into a New Orleans theme in celebration of that amazing city?' " said Allison Sheffield, First Night program manager.

She said the theme also seemed fitting since Utah initially welcomed nearly 600 evacuees from the storm-ravaged area, and several decided to stay permanently.

But Salt Lake City is no New Orleans. Families bundled in layers of winter clothes and fought a strong wind advisory and pounding rain throughout the evening.

Even so, First Night organizers did their best to bring a little bit of New Orleans to the Beehive State. West Temple between 100 and 200 South was rechristened Big Easy Street, where live bands and fire spinners performed and vendors peddled their products throughout the night.

Some festivalgoers really got into the Mardi Gras spirit and donned masks and colorful costumes. One man made a makeshift mask out of tin foil. The children's parade also featured a touch of New Orleans flair as a handful of people dressed up as a Mardi Gras version of Lady Liberty.

And to top it all off, a jambalaya party welcomed hungry visitors to the Salt Palace First Night featured something for everyone, with easy-listening, adult-friendly tunes humming through the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to teen-oriented pop music pumping through the speakers at the Salt Palace.

The annual event is a family tradition for the Orosco family of Ogden. Each year, 9-year-old Sara, her parents and her cousin Graciela drive to Salt Lake City and stay at the Shilo Inn so they can stay up until the clock strikes midnight.

"Oh, I'm gonna stay up 'til 1," Graciela said.

The family spent the afternoon at the First Night Family Festival at The Gateway, where volunteers from the Children's Museum of Utah helped children create noisemakers, flags and decorative party hats.

Sara said she couldn't wait to get her face painted, and Graciela, also 9, was anxious to get in line to make her own party hat.