Saturday’s Krewe of the Pearl Mardi Gras parade had a decent turnout despite cloudy weather.

The parade began at the intersection of Goodyear Boulevard and Kirkwood Street, headed east on Goodyear before turning right onto Main Street. The route then had participants turning right onto West Canal before taking a final right onto Kirkwood where the parade ended back at Goodyear Boulevard.

Tana Cochran, this year’s queen for the Krewe of the Pearl, said she felt there would have been  a heavier turnout if it wasn’t for the cold and semi-rainy weather.

Cochran said she is grateful for those who took the time to participate in the parade. Next year, the focus will be to entice more people to be involved.

“The community needs events such as these to take place within city limits so they do not feel the need to travel to bigger cities,” Cochran said.

To reach her goal for next year, Cochran said it will require enticing more organizations to enter their own floats.

“This year we had the Picayune Main Street and Picayune Chamber of Commerce actively participate, but the goal next year is to try and pull in a bunch of other organizations to make the parade bigger and better,” Cochran said.

Cochran said although it started raining during the festivities, the concert held after the parade drew a crowd who set up tents to watch the show.