Ritter said he hopes this rule change will provide a safe experience for everyone during Mardi Gras moving forward.

YOUNGSVILLE, La. (KLFY)-- Residents in Youngsville are concerned about the increasing prices needed to participate in Mardi Gras parades.

The normal price to enter a Mardi Gras parade in Youngsville is $300, but, with the new rules and guidelines in place this year, people will have to pay around $1,000 and can only participate by invitation.

Craig Spadoni, owner of Bead Busters and Float Rentals, said the increase came as a shock to him.

"Nobody likes a price increase, especially in this day and age with the inflation, but its very costly to put on the parade," Spadoni said. "The cleanup is extremely astronomical."

Less people will be allowed to participate as well. Spadoni said the reasoning for the decrease in entries is to prevent someone from getting hurt during the parades.

"The parade has gotten to be growing to be 120, 140 different entries," Spadoni said. "Its just too long to big. As someone that's in the business, I would love to have 500 floats, but its just not feasible. We're trying to prevent from an accident or something tragic happening like someone losing their life."

"In order to provide the right experience for parade attendees, the fees for the registration had to increase," Youngsville Mayor Ken Ritter said. "It's not a decision we reached lightly but as- you know the cost of doing business in general has increased and regretfully Mardi Gras is not insulted from that."

Ritter said he hopes this rule change will provide a safe experience for everyone during Mardi Gras moving forward.

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