Crowds for MystiQal Mardi Gras

Stephanie Streets had few complaints about Saturday night's second annual MystiQal Mardi Gras parade. Well, maybe one.

"It needs to be longer," said the 30-year-old Louisiana native. She and her friend Donnetria Taylor, 27, said when they saw the last "float," a city of Dallas sanitation truck, roll by just after 7:30 p.m., "We were like, 'What?' " The parade kicked off in downtown Dallas at 6:24 p.m.

Streets' favorite part? Pretty much everyone else's, judging from the roiling, picture-snapping and head-bobbing crowd that followed alongside the Grambling State University Tiger Marching Band. Their signature dancing-while-playing numbers got raucous applause as they did their best to knock the windows out of the Main Street high rises.

"Handle your business, little soldiers," one appreciative listener shouted to the band.

More than 100 off-duty police officers kept a watch on the crowd, which reached more than five deep along the route. Last year's inaugural event attracted about 35,000 and saw a handful of arrests. Police had at least one arrest Saturday night, but final numbers won't be released until later.

A few kids darted among the mostly adult crowd in the hunt for the best green, purple and gold beads and assorted trinkets that krewes hurled from a variety of floats, some more imaginative than others.

Drinking along the parade route was officially banned, but some were spied sipping from clandestine plastic cups. Others openly carried beer bottles. Just as many carried what appeared to be coffee or cocoa, to help cope with the temperatures in the 40s.