Hundreds of people gathered on South Main Street in downtown Little Rock Saturday morning for SoMa 501’s SoMardi Gras parade.
“SoMa Under the Sea” was this year’s theme, and the parade featured nautical floats, sea creature-inspired costumes, marching bands, stilt walkers, a boat deployed by the U.S. Coast Guard, a 20-foot inflatable dog and mermaids from the Netflix documentary series “MerPeople.”
Festival organizers changed the start time of the parade procession from noon to 10 a.m. on account of rain in the forecast. Arkansas Times photographer Brian Chilson reports that it was a bit wet at times but still a good turnout for the 14th annual parade, SoMa 501’s biggest fundraising event of the year. Check out Chilson’s photographs from the parade below:
