NEW ORLEANS -- In this version of the running of the bulls, the horned "creatures" are on wheels, armed with light plastic bats, and aggressively female. But, hey, it's Bourbon Street and the idea galloped straight out of Mardi Gras.

(AP Photo/Pat Semansky)

Hance Haeuser of Baton Rouge, La., poses in a Spanish matador costume after the Running of the Bulls in the French Quarter. Thirty-three members of a local roller derby league played the part of the bulls, chasing hundreds of red-scarved runners down Bourbon Street.

About 600 men, women and children, most in white with red scarves around their waists and red bandannas around their necks, gathered outside a French Quarter bar Saturday morning to be chased by members of New Orleans' roller derby league.

"Roller skates and a stampede through the Quarter -- what could possibly go wrong?" said Jason Medonia, who had added Spanish-style flourishes in black makeup to his real mustache and beard.

Medonia, a tax accountant, said he learned about the event by accident last year.

Last year's run, with 14 "bulls" from the Big Easy Rollergirls chasing more than 150 runners, was so informal that organizer Mickey Hanning didn't even think about permits. He had one this year, so police blocked side streets along the route.

Thirty-three members of the roller derby teams Confederacy of Punches, Crescent Wenches, Storyvillains and league champion Marigny Antoinettes (Marigny is a neighborhood, pronounced MEHR-uh-nee) signed up to chase and whack.

Hundreds of runners knelt for a brief prayer by "The Rev. Psycho Ward," aka Andrew Ward. Then they were off, getting a head start. A few minutes later, the skaters whacked their bats on the street and headed off with a roar. Behind them putted the Rolling Elvi -- Elvis impersonators on motorized scooters.

(AP Photo/Pat Semansky)

A member of the Big Easy Rollergirls roller derby league swings a plastic bat at a runner during the Running of the Bulls

"Give it a year, maybe two, and there'll be more than a thousand people," George "Loki" Williams, who promotes music, art and events, told Jorge Fuentes, programming director at KGLA-TV, a Spanish-language station in New Orleans.

It all started last year, with the simplest of Mardi Gras costumes: a friend of Hanning's dressed as a bull runner in Pamplona, Spain. White pants, white shirt, a red scarf around the waist and a red bandanna around the neck were all he needed.

It made Hanning, who also had run before the bulls in Spain, think how funny it would be to get a bunch of friends together on a Pamplona run weekend and have their wives and girlfriends play the bulls.

A few months later he was hanging out with graphic artist Dylan O'Donnell, talking about Spain. He mentioned the idea casually. O'Donnell, known among his friends as an organizer of big parties, "just lit up and his wheels started spinning," Hanning said.

O'Donnell's girlfriend, Tracey Bellinna, suggested bringing in the Big Easy Rollergirls to chase whoever showed up.

"They had a nice crowd base, a nice newsletter, a lot of fans," and played a big part in last year's turnout, Hanning said.

"I told my wife I'd be happy if 50 people showed up. At 7 o'clock, when the first four people to show up in white were people I didn't know, I knew we were onto something," he said.

This year'scrowd included Russ Schlievert, who came from Montana to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina and loved the city so much he and his wife retired here.

Schlievert said this will be the first year he hasn't been at the "Running of the Sheep" in little Reed Point, Mont. -- an event he organized in 1989 as a spoof of the "Great Montana Cattle Drive" in Billings. It now draws 12,000 to 15,000 people a year to watch 1,000 to 3,000 real sheep run down Main Street.

He was impressed with Saturday's event.

"I was surprised at the turnout," he said. "I was surprised that everybody dressed. But this is New Orleans."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)