Cannata’s Celebrates Mardi Gras Seven Days a Week

In the spirit of carnival season, Cannata’s is celebrating Mardi Gras seven days a week. Located at 6289 West Park Ave, in Houma, Cannata’s shoppers are greeted by festive Mardi Gras props including a giant Humpty Dumpty, a carnival witch, Mardi Gras jester, Elmo, 610 Stomper, Uncle Sam, and a king cake entrance into the store’s award-winning bakery. In addition to the props, Cannata’s placed colored boxes in the parking lot displaying encouraging words to the community.

Vince Cannata, owner of Cannata’s Market said their team decided to place the props in the parking lot this carnival season to create a sense of Mardi Gras in the community, as a follow-up of the store’s participation in Yardi Gras 2021.  “We look at ourselves as a family place, we’re locally owned and operated and consider ourselves a part of the community,” said Cannata, “We lost a store, and a lot of our employees had significant damages. We all live in this area, so we’re just looking for something uplifting and bright during trying times.”

Cannata said the devastation caused by Hurricane Ida in August 2021 is what inspired the colored boxes in the parking lot reading encouraging words like “Hope” and “Believe”. “We have a few boxes spread around the parking lot since Ida to encourage our community during a tumultuous time,” said Cannata, “It’s cool that the big jester is right on top of “believe” as you’re leaving the store, it sets the tone because it’s not just Mardi Gras, but it’s a special Mardi Gras because the people in the community are facing challenging times and troubles.”

In an effort to bring the spirit of Mardi Gras to Terrebonne Parish, Cannata partnered with Houma Float Sales and Rentals, a local company that offers float rentals, repairs, and services to bring Mardi Gras to their parking lot. “We reached out to John during carnival season 2021, he was shut down due to the pandemic, and we thought it would be a great opportunity to not only bring fun to the store but to also give their company exposure during the shutdowns.”

John Poiencot, owner of Houma Float Sales and Rentals said the partnership between Cannata’s and Houma Float Sales and Rentals was a tremendous success and helped the company, following the cancellation of Mardi Gras 2021. “During the pandemic last year, Mr. Vince contacted us to participate in Yardi Gras so I sent over a few props that I made for floats,” said Poiencot, “ Due to the cancellation of the 2021 season my company took a tremendous hit. Vince put a float out in front of his place, which was a little of an extra income for us, it helped us with some of what we lost due to the shutdown, and we were very grateful for it.”

Houma Float Sales and Rentals was established by Poiencot’s Grandfather in the 1980s, renting floats to local krewes. In 2009, Poiencot became the owner of the float company, tripling the size of the company and increasing offered services. “Mardi Gras is my life, it’s been in my family for over 45 years and I’ve been involved with it ever since,” said Poiencot, “We were never really in the prop business, we just rented floats. But now we’re full circle, from maintenance, paint jobs, and props, anything attached to Mardi Gras we do it all.”

Each prop takes approximately 2-3 weeks to create, they include fun and catchy phrases and remixed storybook rhymes, like “Humpty fell in love with our king cakes, you will too,” and “Witch King Cake is your favorite.”

Poiencot said Houma Float Sales and Rentals is honored to be a part of Cannata’s effort to spread the spirit of Mardi Gras in Terrebonne Parish, and to witness the first Mardi Gras since the coronavirus pandemic began two years ago. “Mardi Gras is what draws our community together. It brings us all together in one location and you can’t get that anywhere else. It’s a huge revenue for our community, it generates almost $24 million for our parish,” Poiencot added. “It’s a way of life here, it’s not a luxury.”

The Mardi Gras props will be available for viewing at Cannata’s grocery store until Tuesday, March 14.