The Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons is a collective of friends, most would not call themselves artists.

We are waitresses, engineers, carpenters, chefs, salesmen and scientists who met throwing darts at The Euclid Avenue Yacht Club in 1993. Soon, we started throwing lavish dinner parties and building extravagant costumes. The Krewe was founded at the New Orleans Mardi Gras of 1999 for the express purpose of keeping this festive community of friends together. We see ourselves in the New Orleans Krewes. We stand in awe of their 150-year-old cultural vitality. Where individual creative expression is the coin of the realm, the kingdom is rich. That is our claim to our royal Krewe names: Prince Indulgence, Contessa Alligatta, Marquee of Mayhem, Duchess of Details, Sir Gladly Had, Lady Patience, Baron de Bourbon, etc.

We now have Krewe living across the U.S. and abroad, but our home base is Atlanta. The Krewe has joyfully participated in the Little Five Points Halloween Parade since its inception in 2001 and we have made it our Homecoming. We currently have Krewe traveling from San Francisco, New York, Savannah, St. Augustine, New Orleans, Huntsville, and Ashville with their children and their parents to parade together for Halloween.

The Krewe has become experts at creating remarkable collaborative art. We prefer the scavenger hunt of finding the perfect recycled materials to going shopping. We like to work outside, where our neighbors can stop by and visit. Being a silly public spectacle together is a glorious and rarified bonding experience. We love to share that. We believe that individual creative participation in civic events is priceless cultural development.

2009 is the Krewe's 10th Anniversary Year. We now have three annual events, besides Halloween, where everyone is invited to play with us. The Gingerbread Trailer Park, our Christmas Party with the Yacht Club, the Gnome March in the Inman Park Parade, and the Fairy House Tour of Homes at the Lake Claire Land Trust.

In 2008, the Krewe received a grant from the Fulton County Arts Council to launch our first community arts project, L5ParadeArtworks, a series of free parade art workshops to help improve the creative content of the Halloween Parade in partnership with L5P.

Times are tough this year. The Krewe has decided to find a way to get our community to play Halloween with us and raise the creative bar of our celebration, without asking our government for money. Our Captain, Chantelle Rytter, has agreed to serve as the Creative Director of the L5P Halloween Parade.

She says, "To work is human, to play is divine. All hands on deck!"