BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- While the biggest and loudest Fat Tuesday celebrations will be going all day long in New Orleans, locally Fishlips threw a Fat Tuesday party with music by Mento Buru, Soulajar and Joey Romley.

Matt Munoz, the frontman of ska band Mento Buru, came up with the idea for a Fishlips Fat Tuesday after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Since then, it’s become an annual tradition.

“Why travel all the way to New Orleans when you can just do it here?” Munoz said.

Munoz said people just expected the party to continue. “The first time was just a tribute. The following year it was bigger than the year before. It’s become a Fishlips tradition.”

In February 2006, the event started out with Mento Buru and the jazzy jam band, Soulajar. At that event, the two groups banded together after Soulajar had been cancelled from a show at the now-defunct New Orleans style restaurant, Gumbeauxs.

“Gumbeauxs had given Soulajar the axe for their celebration,” Munoz said. “But we local bands stick together. We don’t give up that easy and took matters into our own hands.”

Now locally the Fat Tuesday event at Fishlips is possibly the largest in Bakersfield.

Music and food began at 7 p.m. at 1517 18th Street with local spinmaster DJ Mikey. $5 bought food and music for the entire evening. The event went until midnight with a packed house filled with partygoers, lots of beads and great music.

See a nostalgic 2006 ABC23 interview with Matt Munoz of Mento Buru on YouTube.