It’s insane how crazy people go for beads. They’re just little plastic balls put together by flimsy string and sold for $5 a pack and after you buy them, catch them, steal them or find them – then what? Do you hang them on your bedpost for posterity? Put them on your door so everyone knows when you are coming or going? Or throw store them in a drawer for next year.

Whatever the reason for the craze, the Magic Hat Brewing Company discovered people’s obsession for these cheap thrills and decided to bring New Orleans to Burlington for a good cause; to raise money and awareness for the Women’s Rape Crisis Center every year for Mardi Gras. (or Pardi Gras as most college students will call it). This year 2,000 people braved the 20-degree weather to participate.

If you weren’t in downtown Burlington on Saturday, then you missed out. As one inebriated college student covered in at least 100 beads exclaimed into his cell phone on Church Street minutes before the deep drums of the parade began to fill the air, “Buddy, there is no better place to be right now than on Church Street.”

Days like Mardi Gras show just how important community is to Burlington. Almost 2,000 people packed those streets to go crazy for beads and support the Women’s Rape Crisis Center. The people who lined the four blocks ranged from the newborns to senior citizens, all dancing and waving and trying to catch the copious amounts of free goods being thrown from the innovative floats. The street even came together, with Ben & Jerry’s offering hot cocoa, M-A-C was doing make-up and face masks, Kiss the Cook was giving out free beads and almost all stores were having some sort of discount or sale. While some fought ruthlessly for stray beads, while trying not to spill their open container of “Gatorade,” you could find most people bending down not to grab beads, but to put them on the necks of small children who stared in awe as the parade rolled by.

Photos taken by Patrick Breen.