Watch 20-Year-Old Coverage From The Krewe Of Centaur Parade

Shreveport's largest Mardi Gras Krewe, the Krewe of Centaur, was first founded in 1991. With the largest Krewe comes the largest Mardi Gras parade as well. The size of Shreveport's Mardi Gras celebrations challenge even some New Orleans Krewes based on riders and distance of parade route.

The Krewe of Centaur has grown at an amazing rate since it was first founded. In the early 1990s, it was essentially a passion project of some are friends. But over the Krewe's first decade, it exploded in growth to become a major economic factor for the Shreveport and Bossier City areas. The next two decades haven't seen a slowdown either. Mardi Gras has now become the crown jewel of tourism from Shreveport-Bossier.

Currently, the Mardi Gras season provides over $10 million in direct economic impact, and a total of $19 million in overall economic impact on an annual basis.

But for a moment, lets take it back in time. Before the economic impact topped the $10 million mark for direct impact, the Krewe of Centaur parade was still a massive parade. By the year 2004, it had grown into a city-wide event, drawing massive crowds from out-of-town visitors.

However, that particular year, 2004, would be some of the most challenging weather conditions the Krewe of Centaur had ever faced. It impacted the crowds, but made history as well. We have even uncovered the video footage to prove it.

There has been a copy of the KTBS broadcast from the 2004 Krewe of Centaur parade that has been uploaded to Youtube. This video footage is 20 years old this Mardi Gras season.

You have to skip through some commercials at the start, but here you go...

That's right, Sonja Bailes and Ed Walsh holding down coverage for KTBS of a Centaur parade covered in SNOW. It actually snowed on the Centaur parade 20 years ago, and it was mentioned multiple times in the broadcast that it was the first time that had happened. Which does make the 2024 parade a historic one.