Universal’s Mardi Gras 2024

Universal has some great events throughout the year, and one of our favorites is Mardi Gras! Now, this isn’t the typical New Orleans Mardi Gras- it’s family-friendly.

Mardi Gras at Universal takes place on the Studios side and typically runs from sometime in February, March, and into the first week of April. There are concerts, food booths, decorations, a tribute store, and, of course, the nightly parade.

This has to be the most fun parade I’ve ever watched- it’s definitely a can’t-miss event! From the music to the stilt walkers to the bead throwers, this parade is high-energy and has lots of crowd involvement. You can even sign up to throw the beads from the floats if you wish!

Jax has perfected his bead-catching skills and now refers to himself as the King of Beads (if you see him in public, please refer to him this way- he would love it!!). He tends to get lots of attention from the amount of beads around his neck every night, which he absolutely eats up!

The food booths are also definitely worth checking out- I didn’t get to sample a ton of food options, but the ones I did try were excellent, and not things you’d typically get in a theme park. Plus, they are smaller portions for reasonable prices, so instead of choosing one large meal, you can snack on several different options.

The tribute store is also something worth seeing. It’s a glorified gift shop, but much cooler. Universal changes the tribute store several times a year, and Mardi Gras is typically one of the themes. This ain’t your ordinary gift shop, though. It’s heavily themed and usually pretty cool, regardless of whether or not you’re interested in purchasing anything. Of course, our King of Beads insisted on buying a jester mask, so I didn’t make it out without a purchase. A cool experience whether you are actually doing any shopping or not, though.

Have you ever been to Universal’s Mardi Gras? What’s your favorite part?