The Bayou Rolls Into Southside

Danville Register & Bee
Published: February 3, 2008

The Community Market sparkled with purple, green and gold decorations Saturday night when the Downtown Danville Association’s Mural Committee hosted its third annual Mardi Gras party.

Heather Vipperman, Danville’s Assistant Director of Tourism, said the event’s Cajun menu of shrimp, chicken, red beans and rice with sausage, Jambalaya, peel-and-eat shrimp and traditional King Cake was New Orleans-inspired. About 350 people lined up to enjoy the spicy dishes.

A DJ played rock and pop music, and people took to the dance floor to work off their dinners. A cash bar added the final element of New Orleans-style fun.

About 30 volunteers raced around refilling food, pouring drinks and taking care of all the other chores that needed to be done to ensure all the guests

enjoyed their evening.

The event is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the mural committee, which is raising funds for a third downtown mural.

Vipperman said the purpose of the murals is to tell Danville’s history, and the third one will be

tobacco-related.

Exactly what the mural will look like and where it will be has not yet been decided, according to John Daniel, who heads up the committee.

“The committee is working on a site and will decide by spring,” he said, adding that ideas about how to portray the impact the tobacco industry has had on Danville are also being discussed.

The committee’s goal is eventually to have at least 10 murals around the city, so it can become officially designated as a “mural city” and attract bus tours of people who travel from city to city to view the outdoor art.

The murals are expensive to commission, because they are so large and labor intensive. Vipperman said there are a limited number of artists who can create them.

Murals are also expensive, Daniel said, and can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 or higher, depending on how intricate they are. The Mardi Gras party will help pay for the tobacco-themed mural, and the committee will probably again offer residents a chance to be a part of the mural by paying to have their face - or that of a family member or friend - painted into the mural, he said.

Mardi Gras, which literally means “Fat Tuesday” in French, falls on the day before Ash Wednesday (this year, Fat Tuesday is on Feb. 5), but the celebrating in New Orleans has been going on since Jan. 19, when the first of more than 50 parades were scheduled in New Orleans and its suburbs.