Each year, hundreds of people gather at the Hilton Riverside Grand Ballroom to dig into a giant bowl of pasta and kick off the pre-party of the annual Italian American Marching Club St. Joseph Parade. The pasta will be served on March 17 at noon from a bowl that stretches 8 feet wide and holds 500 pounds of pasta and more than 150 gallons of meatless gravy.

On Friday, festivities begin at 11:45 a.m. at the fountains in the Piazza d'Italia, 300 Poydras next to the Loew's Hotel, where the 2017 queen, Aubrie Anne St. Germain, a 17-year-old honor student at Mount Carmel, is honored. Armando Anthony Asaro Jr. is the club's 2017 Caesar.