LEWISTON – Pull on a mask and beads. Taste the gumbo. Ready your best two-step.

The Franco American Heritage Center, which sold out its Medieval Feast last fall, aims to pull off another theme night: Mardi Gras.

The former Catholic church plans to remake its downstairs hall into a corner of New Orleans’ French Quarter for the Feb. 1 event, complete with garish-colored lights, a live Cajun band and vats of jumbalaya.

“We want to be a hub for theme nights in Maine,” said Rita Dube, the Lewiston center’s executive director. And more ideas are being discussed, perhaps offering immersive dining and live music every other month.

“There are lots of possibilities,” Dube said. Some might even incorporate Maine celebrities.

This particular party has been discussed for about a year at the center, but the details came into focus only a month ago.

Richard Martin, the center’s program director, hired an emcee. He contracted with a Phippsburg band, JimmyJo and the Jumbol’ayuhs, to offer up life music.

The five-piece specializes in Cajun music, with accordion, fiddle, guitar, bass and a variety of percussion instruments.

“They play the kind of music you might hear in the French Quarter,” he said.

Attendees will be greeted by the band in the Franco center’s columned performance hall, which is scheduled to offer a short lesson on the two-step.

Then, folks will be given masks. Martin hopes they will be accessories to costumes: the crazier the better.

“Dress up, dress down, but come dressed,” Martin said.

The plan is to create an atmosphere for folks to loosen up – part of what Mardi Gras is all about – but there’s a limit, he said.

The center will hand out beads. However, the New Orleans tradition of trading beads for a glimpse of flesh will be prohibited.

There ought to be plenty of other distractions, Martin said.

Among them is a dinner that will include crab gumbo, New Orleans ratatouille, truffled bourbon mashed sweet potatoes and king cake.

Dancing will follow.

The center’s aim is that people have a good enough time that they are willing to attend again.

“We plan to hold the feast again this year,” Martin said. “We want this to be an annual event, too.”