Mobile, AL – Mobile police estimate more than 12,500 people turned out on New Year's Eve to see the city's new tradition - a giant MoonPie rising along the Mobile River.
City Councilman Fred Richardson used $9,000 in city discretionary funds to construct a 12-foot-wide MoonPie. The MoonPie is identified with Mobile's Mardi Gras parades because participants throw the sweet treat from floats.
A crane raised the giant pie about 100 feet in the air. Organizers had planned to raise it higher, but strong winds prevented it. The MoonPie raising was accompanied by fireworks and music.
The pie was first hoisted with 2008, then lowered and raised with 2009.
City spokeswoman Barbara Drummond said the crowd at Cooper Riverside Park was much bigger than the few hundred who turned out for Mobile's New Year's Eve celebration a year ago.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)