By Molly Snyder Senior Writer Published Feb 08, 2023 at 11:31 AM

New Orleans is 1,000 miles from Milwaukee, but this Mardi Gras celebration is merely a bead’s toss away.

Join Wishmakers of Wisconsin on Friday, Feb. 17 at the Marcus Performing Arts Center for an evening of NOLA-style music, food, art and pageantry.

The event runs from 7 to 11 p.m. and includes music from the Extra Crispy Brass Band, silent auction, live artists, New Orleans appetizer stations (Beignets! King Cake!), casino tables, beads, masquerade masks, interactive entertainment and more.

This is a fundraiser for Make-A-Wish Wisconsin. Tickets are $100 and include two drink tickets, appetizers and beads. Guests must be 21 to attend. Scoop up your tickets here.

Feel free to wear your sparkliest outfits – or any purple, green and gold attire – along with masks, feathers and anything else that says, “laissez le bon temps rouler!”


Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.

Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.