Town of Worden set for 18th Annual Wordi Gras Celebration and Parade

On Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, Worden, Ill., will host the 18th Annual Wordi Gras Celebration and Parade. Wordi Gras is Worden's redneck take on Mardi Gras. The parade will kick off at 3 p.m. and run on Wall Street from Park Street to Drummond Street.

The Wordi Gras Parade is an all ages event. Food and merchandise vendors will be located on Wall Street and will feature fare ranging from barbeque to cajun.Food and other vendors will start serving around 11 a.m. and service will continue throughout the day.

Yellow Dog Café and Bar, The Rustic and the Worden American Legion will all have live music throughout the day. After the parade all three establishments will continue the fun for those 21 and over. Yellow Dog will have Baywolfe playing from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. and Cheers Band from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m.

The Rustic will have Ruby Leigh from The Voice playing from 12 to 3 p.m., The Gusto from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m, Clueless 4 to 6 p.m., and Sam Roark from 7 to 10 p.m. The American Legion will have Dustin Coleman playing from Noon until 3 p.m. and Whiskey River playing from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m.

Anyone interested in entering a float in the parade is being asked to begin lining up between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Saw Mill Road, located near the five-way stop. There will be signs and volunteers assisting from there. No registration is required to enter a float in the parade.

Those with questions about entering a float or about the event, please send a message to the Wordi Gras Facebook page. Follow Wordi Gras on Facebook at facebook.com/wordigras for event maps and updates.

Wordi Gras started when a group of friends were sitting around playing cards after having to cancel their planned trip to St. Louis Mardi Gras due to weather. At around 3 p.m. that day they realized they had a bunch of beads that they were not going to be able to use. They came up with the idea that we could have their own parade so they called both bars in town and told them to send everyone outside to watch the parade. The parade consisted of one red truck and the group of friends blaring music and throwing beads from said truck. They continued to ‘celebrate’ at Leo and Jan’s Idle Hour (now The Rustic) and Yellow Dog throughout the night. They had such a blast the first year that they decided to do the same the next year, but this time expanding the parade to include another truck.

The third year was when the parade and crowd started to get big. A press release was put out inviting others to participate in the parade and invited more people to celebrate the redneck themed Mardi Gras. There ended up being 15-20 floats that third year and the event has grown ever since. Each year there is more floats in the parade and more people that come out and celebrate Wordi Gras. There's a wide array of floats ranging from fire trucks to having the Coffin Carriers Club enter their hearses and caskets.There are buses that bring groups of people from two to three hours away for the event. People bring their RV’s down the night before and even participate in what they call “Wordigating."

All in all, Wordi Gras is about a group of people wanting to come out and have a great time with great people.