Mystics of Pleasure to Host 26th Annual $10,000 Drawdown in Orange Beach

Orange Beach’s Mystics of Pleasure Mardi Gras krewe will hold its 26th Annual $10,000 Drawdown on Aug. 28 at the Orange Beach Event Center at The Wharf, continuing a Gulf Coast tradition that organizers say has grown into one of the area’s most anticipated fundraising nights of the year. The event pairs an evening of entertainment with the suspense of a reverse raffle, and it has become a late-summer fixture for locals and repeat visitors alike.

The event begins at 7 p.m. and includes dinner, dancing to live music and an open bar, all built around the excitement of a drawdown-style raffle with a $10,000 grand prize on the line. Tickets are $200 per couple, and unlike many raffle formats, ticket holders do not need to be present at the event to win — a feature that lets supporters who cannot attend still buy into the night’s prize pool.

A drawdown works in reverse of a typical raffle. Every ticket bears a number, and numbers are drawn one at a time over the course of the evening, eliminating entrants as the night goes on. The drama builds with each announcement as the field narrows, until the final two or three ticket holders stand alone and the last number drawn determines who walks away with the grand prize. For the crowd, the format turns a fundraiser into a spectator sport, with the tension concentrated in the final minutes.

New This Year: Extra Chances to Win

For the first time in the event’s history, organizers are offering additional tickets for $75 each, giving guests extra drawdown numbers and more opportunities to walk away with the $10,000 prize. The addition acknowledges a long-running quirk of drawdown events — attendees who want better odds have historically had to buy full separate entries — and gives regulars a new way to deepen their stake in the outcome.

Guests who purchase five tickets will also receive a complimentary private table for 10 guests, an incentive aimed at groups looking to make a night of it with friends and family. The package effectively turns the purchase into a party reservation, seating a group together for dinner and entertainment while multiplying its presence in the drawdown pool.

A limited number of VIP tables are also available for guests who want an elevated experience. Those packages include five extra chance tickets, champagne bottle service, a dedicated server and an exclusive craft cocktail menu. Organizers note that VIP tables are extremely limited and are expected to go quickly, a predictable outcome given that the packages bundle the event’s most sought-after amenities with additional chances at the prize.

A Gulf Coast Tradition

“If you’ve been before, you know why this event has become a Gulf Coast tradition. If this will be your first time, get ready for an unforgettable evening of great food, drinks, entertainment, fellowship, and the excitement of watching the final drawdown number remain standing,” said event coordinator Ron Goode.

Goode said the drawdown has built a loyal following over more than two and a half decades. “For the past 26 years, this event has become one of the Gulf Coast’s most anticipated nights, bringing together great people, incredible food, live entertainment, and the excitement of a chance to win $10,000,” he said.

He also cautioned prospective attendees not to wait to secure their spot. “Every year, the drawdown sells out. If you’re planning to attend, don’t wait until the last minute. Once the tickets and numbers are gone, they’re gone!” Goode said. The sellout pattern has become part of the event’s identity, with regulars treating ticket purchases as a standing item on their late-summer calendars.

How to Get Tickets

Tickets may be purchased in advance directly from the Mystics of Pleasure krewe. Anyone interested in attending, purchasing extra chance tickets or inquiring about the limited VIP tables can call (251) 786-1054 for more information. Organizers encourage early purchases not only because of the sellout history, but because drawdown numbers are assigned at purchase — earlier buyers hold their place in the elimination order from the moment they buy.

The drawdown will take place at the Orange Beach Event Center at The Wharf, a venue that regularly hosts large-scale community gatherings and fundraisers along the Alabama Gulf Coast. The Wharf’s event center sits within the larger entertainment complex on the Intracoastal Waterway in Orange Beach, giving attendees restaurants, bars and other attractions within walking distance before and after the formal program.

For visitors coming from outside the city, the venue’s location adds practical appeal. The Wharf sits just off the Foley Beach Express, offering direct access from Interstate 10 and the Foley corridor, and its on-site lodging means couples and groups attending the drawdown can make the event the center of a full weekend without a long drive home after the evening ends.

The Krewe Behind the Event

As one of the region’s established Mardi Gras krewes, the Mystics of Pleasure use events like the annual drawdown to fund float building, parade participation and other krewe activities throughout the year. The economics of Gulf Coast Carnival seasons are less visible than the parades themselves: floats must be designed, built, stored and maintained, throws must be purchased by the crate, and insurance, permits and logistics all carry costs that membership dues alone rarely cover.

Fundraising nights like the drawdown fill that gap while doubling as social events that recruit new members and keep the krewe’s community ties strong. On the Alabama coast, where Mardi Gras traditions run nearly as deep as in neighboring Mobile, krewes are civic institutions as much as social clubs, and their off-season fundraisers sustain the parade infrastructure that draws crowds every Carnival season.

The Mystics of Pleasure have built their reputation over more than two decades of participation in Orange Beach’s Mardi Gras celebrations, and the drawdown has grown alongside the krewe. Twenty-six years is a long run for any fundraiser, and the event’s endurance reflects both the loyalty of its audience and the durability of its format — dinner, dancing, and a countdown that keeps a ballroom full of people invested until the final number is called.

This year’s edition adds the extra-chance tickets and VIP packages to a familiar formula, and organizers expect the changes to push attendance past its usual sellout. For attendees, the evening offers the same proposition that has filled the Orange Beach Event Center every August for a quarter century: a night of Gulf Coast hospitality with a $10,000 question at the end of it.

Drawdowns and the Gulf Coast Fundraising Circuit

The drawdown format has become a staple of Gulf Coast fundraising for good reason. It solves the central problem of charity events — keeping an audience engaged long after dinner is served — by making the evening itself the entertainment. Instead of a silent auction that winds down or a door prize announced early, a drawdown paces its suspense across hours, with eliminations spaced between courses, toasts and dance sets until the crowd is on its feet for the finish.

Across Baldwin County and Mobile, civic groups, booster clubs and krewes run versions of the format through the year, but few have reached the tenure of the Mystics of Pleasure’s event. A 26-year run requires institutional memory — coordinators, ticket sellers and venue relationships that survive leadership turnover — and it gives the event a built-in audience of families who have attended for a generation.

The $10,000 grand prize is sized to be life-changing enough to sell tickets and large enough to create genuine suspense at the final table. Because entry revenue substantially exceeds the prize, the event functions as the krewe’s major annual fundraiser, with proceeds spread across the year’s operating needs. The addition of $75 extra-chance tickets this year deepens that model, letting the most enthusiastic supporters contribute more without requiring a full second entry.

Mardi Gras on the Alabama Coast

The krewe’s fundraiser exists within a broader Mardi Gras culture that the Alabama Gulf Coast shares with Mobile, the American city where the celebration began. Carnival traditions moved down the bay into Baldwin County over the decades, and Orange Beach and Gulf Shores now stage their own parades each season, drawing families who once traveled to Mobile for the holiday.

Krewes like the Mystics of Pleasure anchor that local scene. Members build and ride floats, organize balls and social events, and raise the money that makes the pageantry possible. In a resort city, the parades also serve the visitor economy, drawing spectators in February when the beach season is at its slowest — one more reason municipalities support the organizations behind them.

For now, though, the krewe’s attention is fixed on August. The Orange Beach Event Center will fill with supporters on the 28th, dinner and dancing will carry the early evening, and the drawdown numbers will fall one by one until a single ticket remains standing. Veterans of the event say the final stretch — the last handful of numbers, each announced to a louder roar — is worth the price of admission on its own, whether or not a guest’s number survives to the end.

Tickets, extra chances and VIP table information are available from the Mystics of Pleasure at (251) 786-1054, and the organization’s advice is unchanged from years past: buy early, because once the numbers are gone, they are gone.