Amateur sleuths looking to participate in Langley’s Mystery Weekend may find themselves joining a new type of event this year.

Just in time for Fat Tuesday, the annual two-day mystery event on Feb. 22 and 23, now in its 36th year, has a Mardi Gras theme. The weekend will kick off with a Mardi Gras parade, an event new to Langley.

Co-mystery writer Rachel McDougald has taken the reins in planning this year’s Mystery Weekend and came up with the idea of using Mardi Gras as a theme.

Suspects in the murder mystery will march in the parade on Feb. 22, beginning around 12:30 p.m. at the intersection of Second Street and Anthes Avenue. The parade will end at Whale Bell Park, where the coroner’s report will be read.

Anyone is welcome to march alongside the 30 costumed suspects in the parade, and can sign up by emailing Langley@Whidbey.com

“Criteria is that people must be in appropriate costume for Mardi Gras and, if they can play a trumpet or saxophone and know the words to “Jock-a-Mo,” all the better,” said Inge Morascini, the Chamber of Commerce director, in an email.

Although it’s not yet a law in Langley that participants must wear masks, Morascini said it is “strongly suggested.”

“Many people don elaborate costumes, wigs or masks to celebrate and we encourage as much flash and bling as the participants can carry off,” she said. “Beads and other ‘throws’ are welcome too.”

Morascini added that a parade might become a regularly planned event in the coming years, but that it’s likely it won’t have a Mardi Gras theme.