BATON ROUGE — The traditional Spanish Town flamingo “flocking” happened overnight with 140 pink flamingos put up all around the metro Baton Rouge area.
In years past, the nearly 5′ tall, hot pink flamingos could be seen in the LSU Lakes and within an hour of people realizing they were there, all of them would be gone.
Anyone who picks up a flamingo, is welcome to keep it and use it to decorate their homes, yards, or however they please.
STOLE A FLAMINGO? Submit your pictures!
“It started over 30 years ago and the original flocking was the promote the sale of the tickets for the ball,” said SPLL (Society for the Preservation of Lagniappe in Louisiana) Board Member Jason Broussard. “The first flocking was done in the lakes at the Capitol. Several years later, they moved them to the LSU Lakes, or City Lakes, and then because of the dredging, we moved to the University Lakes. It’s now developed its own tradition outside of Spanish Town.”
Now however, the ball sells out within a few weeks so the tall birds are no longer needed to promote the ball. With the dredging at the LSU Lakes, the temporary tradition has become that board members and the royalty put up flamingos at local businesses and people’s homes after nightfall. It’s why so many people are waking up on Feb. 3rd to flamingos all over the place.
“Technically, it could be considered ‘stealing’ the flamingos, but we call it ‘adopting’ them and so the tradition is for you to get a big bird either from the lake or the ball because we put up 14 at the ball too. So at the end of the night, they’ll be gone too. We paint 140 of the big flamingos and the ‘wemingos’ (the baby flamingos),” Broussard added.
The tradition of the ‘wemingos’ started a few years ago as well as stamping them with the year they’re released. It’s why they have now become a collector’s item. They’re typically sold at the brunch and ball.
Broussard said they hope to get back to the LSU Lakes for the traditional Spanish Town flamingo flocking, but it depends on the dredging project.
Despite all the fun and hard work that goes into preparing for the flamingo flocking, behind the hot pink and flamingos is a very important calling for the Spanish Town members.
“Each person on the board picks a charity. When you hand a check to somebody in March and you see how it affects them, what good it does for them, it’s amazing. We average yearly $85,000-$100,000 that goes to charities. In the early years, I think the first check was made to a food bank for $100. Now, we have given almost $1.7 million in charity,” said Spanish Town President Robert King.
Nearly 30 local charities receive donations from Spanish Town yearly. It’s why the group started by putting up the first flamingo at Children’s Hospital.
“Children’s Hospital is one of the charities we give to you every year and it’s probably the biggest charity or they get one of the biggest amount because it means a lot to all the board members, so we just love being a part of Children’s Hospital,” he said.
READ NOW: History of how Spanish Town started
Spanish Town started in 1981 and adopted the flamingo as its mascot. This year’s parade rolls on March 1, 2025. The these this year is “In Smiley Town, Smile says…,” in honor of the late columnist Smiley Anders.
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