By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Imagine roughly 450 people have climbed into their positions on garishly captivating Mardi Gras floats with larger-than-life towering figures. It was the final moment of a year’s worth of preparing—float repairs, costumes, themes, and community service projects. Now it was their night to delight nearly 40,000 spectators.
They’d loaded thousands of strands of beads onto the floats along with boxes of stuffed animals and other dazzling items, all ready to sail from their hands to the hopeful crowds lining the parade route.
Standing in line ready to roll were 15 floats, marching bands, Mardi Gras entertainers, local fire trucks, and motor vehicles—all set to roll down the Seawall in Galveston.
The weather had been ominous looking, but rain or no rain the krewe was determined to roll. “We have never had to cancel—we’ve rolled even if it rains,” said Erica, a member of the krewe.
But then lightning struck on the beach side of the Seawall, and a decision had to be made. The dreaded decision: cancel the Krewe of Gambrinus parade in 2025.
Flash forward to 2026, and the entire Krewe of Gambrinus has once again begun preparing for their night—now 24 months in the making.
“We always look forward to this, and now we have two years of pent-up enthusiasm built up since our parade didn’t get to roll last year,” said Erica.
A generation of spectators have marveled as floats with King Gambrinus grasping his beer stein, Uncle Sam standing tall and proud, a pirate whose smile reveals missing teeth, an oversized court jester, a Clydesdale prancing with purple, green, and gold beads draped over its neck, and other whimsical characters roll out as the sun sets and the skies grow dark.
Founded in 1989 by Larry Del Papa, the Krewe of Gambrinus—briefly known as the Krewe of Brew—has been a part of Galveston Mardi Gras celebrations for several decades. The krewe adopted King Gambrinus as a name and mascot because of his legendary status as the saint of brewing a frothy malted beverage known today as beer.
Jeff Trambella will be this year’s grand marshal and has been managing the thousands of details needed to bring the parade to the people. Galveston Chief of Police Doug Bali will serve as honorary grand marshal.
The krewe is made up of over 300 individuals who all contribute their labor of love to making Galveston’s Mardi Gras spectacular. Jeff estimates that over 700 hours of work have gone into bringing the floats into tip-top shape for this year’s parade.
One krewe member, Rick, has an autobody shop in Pearland and has been refreshing the floats’ giant mascots, such as the Clydesdale that once sat atop the Del Papa Distributing warehouse in Galveston. The court jester was missing an arm until Rick crafted a replacement. Rick has a list of others tto be worked on in the coming year.
Each float will carry 29–30 people positioned on the upper and lower levels and on each side.
“Riding on a float is kind of a combination of being Santa Claus and a rock star,” said Erica. “Everyone is cheering for you, and they hope you will throw them something good.”
Inside the float barn, the floats are almost ready. The final detail—filling them with beads, plush toys, and lighted bangles—will take place when two 18-wheelers roll into Galveston from Louisiana laden with 900 bags of Mardi Gras happiness. Float captains will assist in distributing the bounty.
This year’s parade will be held on Saturday, February 7, with a start time of 6:00 pm. The Krewe of Gambrinus parade begins on the Seawall near 57th street, then makes its way down 25th street, where fewer spectators reportedly line up. Next it rolls onto Post Office Street, then turns toward the Strand for its grand finale, where barricades block the street and people clamor for beads.
The parade will include nine marching bands, 15 Krewe of Gambrinus floats, an assortment of other entertaining troupes, some of the region’s beloved fire trucks, a variety of motor vehicles, and hundreds of energetic krewe members eager to sail beads to spectators or toss a stuffed animals to a children along the parade route.
For now, the floats are waiting, and so are thousands of participants and tens of thousands of spectators—all eager for Galveston’s 2026 Mardi Gras.
