Mardi Gras Columbia remembers Tom Hall

Columbia’s annual Mardi Gras festival recently celebrated its 15th anniversary one year after co-founder Tom Hall’s death.

The festival’s coordinators and participants commemorated his life by incorporating his influence into the events. His band, The Plowboys, performed on the Tom Hall stage, which was renamed in Hall’s honor last year.

“Tom was kind of the ringleader in that band,” Stillhouse band member Mike Mahoney said. “He would get up there and he would just start something, everybody would fall in, and they didn’t know how long it was going to go or what was next.”

Stillhouse was one of the six bands to play the Tom Hall stage. The band performed at the festival multiple times in their 20 years together. 

“He was a very selfless person,” Mahoney said. “He really looked out to make sure that what he was doing included everybody. He was an attorney by trade, but he had a big life outside of that.”

The festival coordinators, known as the Krewe de Columbi-Ya-Ya, were also determined to keep his memory alive. This year’s Mardi Gras King, Dan Settana, helped organize the event with Hall since the first festival. His job alongside Mardi Gras Queen Tracie Bloom was to keep the event fun for the guests.

“I went to college and law school with Tom, and we’ve known each other, but Tom was a Renaissance guy,” Settana said. “He practiced law off and on, but he did a lot of stuff, and he was a poet and a musician and a filmmaker.”

Columbia’s Mardi Gras festival continues to be charity-focused. However, Hall’s passing just before last year’s festival made an impact on how the charities are chosen. This year’s charities have not been announced. Last year’s charities were selected due to Hall’s participation with them and included the Palmetto Trail, The Charitable Plate, the River Alliance, Pathways to Healing, the Animal Mission and One Columbia for Arts and Culture.

The Krewe pays festival expenses for the festival – bands, security, stages and taxes – before donating money.

“We see how much money is left over and then where it can make the most difference and who needs it,” Settana said.

Other Krewe de Columbi-Ya-Ya members remembered Hall’s involvement with the festival. 

“He always liked to ride the tractor in the parade,” said Stephan Jensen, who has volunteered for six years. “He had this old tractor he was riding that sometimes pulled the float.”

Jensen credits Hall’s Krewe de Columbi-Ya-Ya for allowing him to connect with others interested in charity.

“We have a weekly social and pick a different bar every time where we just show up between 5:30 and 8:00 – start drinking, having fun, meeting people,” he said. “It’s a good way to meet other people interested in the same thing.”

Hall’s impact extends outside of the festival as well. Lawyer and musician Steven Pittman said he befriended him in law school during the early 1990s. Pittman is now an attorney in Hernando, Mississippi.

“We both loved art, music, nature, and played in bands,” Pittman said. “It’s hard to believe, but the last time I saw Tom was 11 years ago when the Plowboys came and played the Front Porch Jubilee, which I started here in Hernando.”

Although Pittman did not attend this year’s Mardi Gras Columbia, he shared a song he wrote for Hall entitled “Tom’s Song.” The lyrics reflect the impact of Hall’s life and absence.

“My friend, where have you gone?” the lyrics read. “Gone to the country where the wildflowers bloom, wide open spaces, plenty of room.”

Mardi Gras Columbia was held March 1 at City Roots Farm in the Rosewood Neighborhood.