A puppet in a white suit, with a smiley face for a head, towers over every Beltline Lantern Parade. His name is Mr. Happy, and he’s the creation of Cam Ayer, who has marched every year since 2010 as a member of the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons. On May 3, Mr. Happy will join thousands of others at Adair Park and head up the Southwest Beltline trail for the 15th annual Lantern Parade, a free community event that has become an iconic Atlanta tradition.
The Krewe’s leader, Chantelle Rytter, dreamed up the Beltline’s signature event back when the city-transforming pedestrian throughway was just a dirt path. “We wanted to inhabit the space and imagine what it could be,” says Rytter.
While the parades are now an Atlanta fixture, they were initially inspired by a Southeastern sister city. When Rytter moved back to Atlanta in 2001 after a spell in New Orleans, she missed the mischief and magic of Mardi Gras. Rytter and her friends formed their krewe (the term originates from the social organizations that stage Carnival parades around Louisiana) and walked in the Little Five Points Halloween Parade dressed as gnomes—but she felt something was missing. “New Orleans krewes see parades as a gift to their city, but I was running around as krewe captain and not giving a gift,” Rytter recalls…