Why? Really just why?

Mardi Gras is going to happen this year. Has anyone considered the fact that the city is going to smell like a sewer seeing as they hold their party?

Just ewwww.

NEW ORLEANS - Come hell or high water, Mardi Gras organizers are vowing to hold the city's signature celebration in February.

Tourism officials and parade hosts appeared before the City Council to insist the annual pre-Lent celebration - part family party, part bacchanalian blowout - will return this winter.

"We have to do this," agreed Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson. "We can't afford to miss a beat."

Mardi Gras generates as much as $1 billion in economic activity, and the raucous celebration draws an estimated 1 million people each year.