Established in 1947, the Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Day Club‘s Irish Channel Parade features over-1400 walkers, mostly wearing black suits and/or kilts with green accessories, who swap kisses (mostly on the cheek) for flowers and trinkets. Also included are bagpipers, the green-afroed women of Alter Egos, and the wigged, blue-stripe-painted, kilt-wearing men of the Braveheart Warriors Marching Club. But the parade is best known for the dozens of double-decker floats throwing everything from beads to cabbages – and this year I was one of the people throwing! Continue reading
Category Archives: Carnival
Krewes of Proteus & Orpheus Parades 2023
Lundi Gras is the last night of the big Uptown float parades. The oldest night parade is Krewe of Proteus – established in 1882. From what I can see, the beautiful floats still sit atop the original wooden chassis. Everyone I knew was too beat to go out or was conserving their energy for the Fat Tuesday merrymaking, so I went by myself.
My first full Carnival season after moving here was in 2010, when the Saints won the Super Bowl DURING the Mardi Gras festivities. It was amazing – and I blogged all about it – complete with videos! I attended dozens of parades, many of them alone. But I was never solo for long. Continue reading
Krewe of Tucks 2023
A favorite of kids of all ages, the Krewe of Tucks parade features hand-decorated scrub brushes and plungers as well as other toilet-themed beads and toys. The weather was beautiful as school marching bands and adult dance/walking krewes filled the Avenue and floats filled trees with festive toilet paper. Continue reading
Krewe of Iris 2023
The Krewe of Iris is the oldest all-female krewe, established in 1917. The krewe’s’ signature throw is hand-decorated sunglasses. I caught 3 pair this year and another 4 pairs of undecorated sunglasses along with other fun treasures like a fanny pack and a glitter-filled rain poncho. Iris is such a pretty parade with colorful, feminine floats like the fairy with motorized wings that open wide then glide back as the street-barge rolls the Avenue. Continue reading