Pictured: With the Krewe captain looking on, His royal majesty, the King of the Knights of Sparta along with Her royal majesty, Queen Sparta  LVIII, Kathaleen Mary Mercer take their grand march during the Spartan Ball.  Photo: Mardi Gras Digest

Sparta named as #1 Royal Couple on U.S. Gulf Coast

March 4, 2010            New Orleans, Louisiana ................. The Knights of Sparta, one of New Orleans major men's Carnival organizations will have it's royalty named the number one royal couple on the U.S. Gulf Coast in the traditional category of celebration in the U.S. Carnival. The announcement was made earlier last week by the editor-n-chief and publisher of Mardi Gras Digest Magazine, the News & Business Journal of the Carnival industry.

The club was chosen from over 63 plus royal couples from across across the entire United States Gulf Coast spanning the Texas coast at Galveston to the shoreline at Tampa Bay, Florida, on the peninsula. The industry magazine looked at well over 63 responses to their general call for clubs whose membership wanted coverage this season. To its surprise, many more clubs responded to the email that was sent out on August 15th, 2009 calling on Carnival organizations to contact the magazine to arrange pictures and interviews of their royalty and prepare for coverage of their balls.

By the magazine own count, there are well over 225 clubs located on the U.S. Gulf Coast that are in the "traditional" category, approximately 675 clubs in the non-traditional category, and well over 1,600 clubs and groups that are "hybrids" or hold other type of celebrations than the two main categories named earlier. Traditional is defined as any club following the rules as laid down by the 1857 model of the Comus organization founded in New Orleans, Louisiana. Non-Traditional is defined as any club which roughly follows the rules of Comus but do not call their royalty King & Queen, or operate in a way that is "recognizable" under the Comus rule. Hybrids are defined as any club that does not follow the Comus rule and operate in no recognizable way to those rules.

Separate press releases will be issued on the Clubs which won the other categories when the magazine is distributed to the news stands  and it's subscribers. The magazine chose the couple after the completion of a 8 month long process which included,  (1) Theme and theme execution  (2) Ball and its execution (3) Costumes (5) Regal Stature (6) Club connections to the neighborhood  (7) The Royal itinerary  (8) Press inclusion  (9)  Maids and their costumes  (10) Overall Club's Royal Couples agenda after the coronation. These are exactly the points that will be looked at in the future as the magazine continue the project, which is designed to accomplish calling press attention to Carnival's most accomplished Royal couple on the U.S. Gulf Coast! Formal press releases will go out on the wires March 18th 2010 and should be picked up nation wide.

The announcement was made by the publisher, Marian Clark and the current Editor-n-Chief, Willie Clark, at the Magazine's headquarters in Hammond, Louisiana on Monday, March 8th, to local press. "The Knights of Sparta won 7 out of the 10 required elements, and came in 4th on one element and 2nd on the last two. Their execution of the theme utilizing the series of restaurant dinners was truly inspiring, and deserves to be touted!", said publisher Marian Clark. "The element of press inclusion is also where the club exceeded the curve. The captain maintains a blog which he talks to the press, other captains, and the industry appraising them of the status of the New Orleans Carnival, plus the club is willing to work w/ the press to educate and give access where possible, so the media can do its job! The club simply is a well oiled machine in Carnival and a testament to a great board, the Kings royal committee and a terrific captain", said Mrs. Clark ".

As a  testament to how completely the Knights of Sparta couple dominated the project, was the fact that the award for the royal couple was not the only honor which came out of the Spartan ball masque. The cover of the magazine will also carry one of her majesty's (6) six spectacular Spartan maids modeling the Maid costume entitled, "The Sonnet". Spartan maid, Miss Emily Lauren Kiefer, will grace the cover of this quarter's upcoming issue along with the masked duke, in a photo taken as they paraded during the balls grand march. Part of the Spartan charm are the absolutely stunning maid costumes and their models which are debutants, each season.

"When the "Sonnet" was paraded,  I turned to the publisher at the same time she turned to me as we both together said,  'Cover'!" We will be ready before the month is out to formally announce all the winners", said Willie Clark Jr. the publications editor.  We will be contacting the krewe soon to have the maid sign a release and render payment!