Mardi Gras Melee in Philly; 200 Arrested

PHILADELPHIA —  More than a half-dozen stores were looted early today as police tried to clear thousands of Mardi Gras revelers from a popular entertainment district.

Authorities promised to make the event that began on Tuesday peaceful and arrested at least 200 people but couldn’t stop dozens from smashing the windows of a state-owned liquor store and stealing its contents.

Moments earlier, crowds broke into a boutique, a record store and other businesses on South Street, a trendy stretch of barrooms and shops at the edge of downtown.

Late Tuesday, despite temporary metal fences designed to keep pedestrians on the sidewalk, crowds poured into the street. Eventually, police gave into the crowd and closed the street to vehicles instead of trying to push back the partyers.

There were reports of people throwing bottles at police, and most of the barrooms had closed hours before the 2 a.m. deadline set by law.

Last year, Mardi Gras came when many colleges were on spring break. That, combined with warm weather, made for a record crowd of 25,000, and 33 people were arrested.

In New Orleans, a city with a bit more experience in the ways of Fat Tuesday fun-making, an estimated million or more people jammed the city’s streets for a raucous, libidinous, alcohol-fueled--but peaceful--celebration.

Tourists stood agape in the French Quarter as three women strolled the crowded, narrow streets wearing nothing but sandals, bikini thongs and elaborate swirls of brightly colored body paint.

“It’s like nothing else in the world--the world’s biggest freak show,” said Wolf Martin, 57, a Los Angeles software engineer.

Olivier Zissler, a visitor from Nice, France, was amused by the Fat Tuesday excess.

“We have Carnival in Nice, but it’s nothing like this. This makes me think Americans are crazy. In America, it seems like you have everything or nothing; it’s all done to extremes.”

Jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain opened Tuesday’s celebrations by leading his Half-Fast Walking Club on its 40th annual Mardi Gras trek down St. Charles Avenue at 7 a.m.

“This is amazing,” Marilyn Campbell of Fairborn, Ohio, said as she watched the costumed and sometimes barely clad show go by. “You just stand there and laugh.”