BATON ROUGE — The Spanish Town Parade has been a cherished annual tradition in Baton Rouge since 1981, growing larger every year. But 2025 appears to have set a record!
“I’ve been in this parade for 42 years, and I’ll tell you, after the pandemic, we had a large crowd, but yesterday, I think we had probably 250,000 or more,” said Spanish Town President Robert King. “I think it’s the largest crowd we’ve ever had, and seeing everybody happy, with smiles—it was awesome to be able to see that.”
WATCH SPANISH TOWN 2025 AS IT ROLLED
The beautiful, sunny day certainly helped as revelers, dressed in anything and everything pink, took over Downtown Baton Rouge. They lined the streets, eagerly awaiting more than 75 floats and 2,000 participants, ready to catch whatever they could! The Spanish Town Parade kicked off at noon on March 1, 2025, drawing a record crowd of approximately 250,000 people.
The parade attracts not only locals from the Greater Baton Rouge area but also visitors from across the country—and even the world! King shared that over the years, he has met people from neighboring Mississippi, Minnesota, and as far away as Quebec and Europe.
King has been part of Spanish Town since 1983, joining the ‘Pink Path Family’ just two years after its inception. He and the dedicated team behind the parade work tirelessly year-round for this one special day. And for King, parade day means everything.
“I love my Pink Path Family. I love to see people excited and enjoying life with everything going on in the world. When people can come out and just forget everything—you get doctors and lawyers dressing up in stuff they would never wear throughout the year—but they come out and just let their freak side go. It’s amazing. And to sit back and watch it… just the amount of people everywhere—on floats, throwing, crowds—it’s what I live for every year. This is my life,” King said emotionally.
By Sunday, March 2, 2025, Downtown Baton Rouge had quieted down, but cleanup crews faced a massive task, with streets covered in beads and remnants of a great time. Meanwhile, Spanish Town leaders were already shifting gears—from parade festivities to philanthropy.
“We have a meeting March 5 to discuss our end of year, which we have to do by April 1, and so that’s when we’ll figure out how much we get to donate. It’s going to be short this year due to the Bowling Congress in town. We were shorted a lot of tables for the ball, but we will still have checks for charities. On average, we’ve been around $90,000. Last year, I think, was $96,000, and so far, we’ve done $1.7 million in donations,” King said proudly.
And the parade is far from the end for Spanish Town. After the donation checks are distributed, the Pink Path Family still has plenty of events to check off their list before planning begins for 2026.
For those wondering—next year’s parade rolls on February 14, 2026!
History of Spanish Town
Spanish Town started in 1981 with a group of locals in the Spanish Town neighborhood “going up and down the streets with kids beating on boxes like drummers and that was basically the first parade and it grew from there,” per Spanish Town’s President Robert King.
The Spanish Town neighborhood is in an area between the State Capitol and downtown and houses residents from all genres and professions. The first “parade” in 1981 was a handful of people. Now, it’s grown to over 200,000 people taking part in the parade as 75 floats with nearly 10 bands take to the streets in a pink sea.
“There were a couple of guys, Charles Fisher & some others who saw a pink flamingo in a yard and they just figured let’s go with the flamingo. The flamingo is actually a very peaceful and docile bird and that is how it’s grown into what it is today. Spanish Town is a big pink family. Once you meet someone in pink, you got a friend for life. There’s no color barrier or anything with Spanish Town. Everybody gets together. They’re all brothers and sisters, they’re all pink that one day for the parade. It’s just amazing to see that and experience that,” said King.
King has been a part of Spanish Town since 1981. “I’m almost 72-years-old. I’ve been in Spanish Town right at 40 years. I sometimes say, ‘I might want to quit but I can’t. It’s in my blood. I just can’t. When you see people on the parade route, it’s just an experience.”
But Spanish Town is so much more than a parade.
“It’s such an honor after you finish the ball and parade to see how much money you have. Each person on the board picks a charity and then we intermingle, I might take my charity and add to someone else’s charity to where we bump up and they get good money. But 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,” King told UWK.
Spanish Town members purposely book hotels in downtown for the ball and parade, eat at local restaurants and royalty throws a party at a local bar to help those businesses financially.
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