Drummers Tom Wenner, center, and Dylan Bassett along with saxophonist Miles Bassett practice on Feb. 8, 2019, for the upcoming Mardi Gras parade in Lawrence. The parade will be March 5 along Massachusetts Street.

Mardi Gras is still a few weeks away, but local musicians have already been practicing for the annual parade through downtown Lawrence.

This year, Mardi Gras, the day before Lent that’s also known as Fat Tuesday, will fall on March 5.

“It’s all based on the cycle of the moon,” said Dylan Bassett, a local percussion performer and drummer in the Brass Mob Brass Band.

Bassett was referring to how the date of Easter and the prior Lenten season are calculated. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the paschal full moon, which is the full moon that comes after the spring equinox on March 21. This year, Easter is on April 21, and Lent begins 40 days before that, not counting Sundays.

Bassett and the brass band will be parading on the sidewalk along Massachusetts Street beginning at noon on March 5, with a whole assortment of costumed participants and performers.

Lawrence’s annual Mardi Gras parade was started in 2007 by Mike West and Katie Euliss, performers with the band Truckstop Honeymoon. They moved to Lawrence from New Orleans after losing their home in Hurricane Katrina. Their children cried when they learned Lawrence didn’t celebrate Mardi Gras, so they decided to organize a Mardi Gras parade with their friends and neighbors, Bassett said.

Though West and Euliss have left town since the last Mardi Gras, parade participants promised that they would keep the tradition alive.

This year, musicians have been gathering on Friday nights to practice. On a recent evening, musicians and instruments filled the Lawrence living room of Bassett’s son, Miles Bassett. Musicians who have participated in the parade since its inception were on hand, as well as young college students and a trumpet player who moved to town two weeks ago. One woman was playing a washboard.

“There is no leader,” Bassett said. “We’re just a bunch of people who get together and enjoy the Mardi Gras.”

The plan for March 5 is for people to dress up in Mardi Gras style and meet just before noon at Aimee’s Coffee House, 1025 Massachusetts St. Even if people didn’t attend rehearsals, they are welcome to join the parade. Any instrument works, Bassett said.

“We meander up the street and end up at Free State Brewery and have lunch and play a few tunes,” Bassett said.

“We walk on the sidewalk and follow the crosswalks,” Bassett said.