Krewe Boheme Parade 2022

Krewe Boheme debuted in 2019 and rolled again in 2020, but the Bywater/Marigny/French Quarter walking parade had to sit last year out when Carnival parades were cancelled for the pandemic. Established by artists, the krewe’s symbol is a green fairy – the nickname for absinthe, a super-intoxicating liqueur.

Krewe of Chewbacchus 2022

It’s been 2 long years since Carnival floats rolled through the city of New Orleans. The pandemic shut things down just after the parades in 2020 until the Halloween parade, Krewe of Boo – an early test of whether parading would be safe this year. 

The unofficial start of the Carnival parade season used to be next Saturday’s Krewe Du Vieux, but the festivities now begin earlier with the Star Wars-inspired Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus. The dancing army of Princess Leia’s led the way for hours of walking krewes, live bands and general revelry.

Hurricane Ida Update

It’s been 2 weeks since Hurricane Ida struck the Louisiana shoreline. The Category 4 storm left chunks of Louisiana, including New Orleans, without power before climbing the country spewing tornadoes and mass flooding. Some continue to wait for power but most of the state has been restored. The French Quarter and some other neighborhoods have internet, cable and landline access. The city is slowly coming back but problems persist.

Trash collection has resumed but is spotty at best. Same with the mail.

Hurricane Ida – Wed. the 1st

We’ve been without power since Sunday. As I said yesterday, life is very simple now. Breakfast today was cereal with juice. We charged our mobile devices at the neighbor’s porch/local-hangout and swapped rumors about where there might be power, gas or ice. A couple more neighborhoods had power and that kept us all optimistic for a reasonable recovery time.

Today’s hunt was for ice.

Hurricane Ida – Tues. the 31st

Life is very simple now. We wake when it’s light out and sleep when it gets dark. I’m a night owl who works until very late most nights so it’s quite an adjustment to get so little regular work accomplished and go to bed when early risers do. 

We eat. Breakfast today was scrambled eggs with softening cheese and defrosting shrimp. We tested the eggs in a cup of water but neither of us could remember if it was a bad thing that they were sinking and there was no internet to consult. We chanced it.

House Floats – Algiers

“Yardi Gras,” the 2021 socially distanced version of Mardi Gras, has turned houses and businesses throughout New Orleans into parade floats. The grassroots Krewe of House Floats promoted this safe parade concept, encouraging people to use local businesses and artists to help decorate their places, or go DIY, then register on their map. The Krewe’s founder, Megan Boudreaux, lives in Algiers Point and we found her headquarters, the USS House Float. I can’t imagine she realized thousands of people would create house floats as far away as Australia and Abu Dhabi when she first came up with the Krewe.  

I’ve already covered the Marigny, the French Quarter, St. Charles Ave.,  Magazine Street, the Irish Channel, Mid-City, and the Garden District and Lower Garden District.

House Floats – Marigny

If you read my last post of the fabulous costumes of Fat Tuesday, you’ve already seen a few of the house floats in the Marigny, the neighborhood across Esplanade from the French Quarter. “Yardi Gras,” the 2021 socially distanced version of Mardi Gras, has turned houses and businesses throughout the city (and even the world) into parade floats. The grassroots Krewe of House Floats promoted this safe parade concept, encouraging people to use local businesses and artists to help decorate their places, or go DIY, then register on their map. The spectacular displays by float artists like Kern Studios have turned one St. Charles Ave. yard into a circus and another into a jurassic park – with top hats and masques.

Fat Tuesday 2021 – Costumes!

Usually, Fat Tuesday – Mardi Gras in French – splits the city into parade-goers and costumers. Parade-goers attend the Krewe of Zulu and Krewe of Rex parades, with diehards staying for the long procession of truck parades – all of which were cancelled for COVID. We’re costumers so though alcohol sales were forbidden in the French Quarter, and our day started at 28 degrees, we masked up and masqued up and ventured out.

House Floats – French Quarter

 “Yardi Gras” is the 2021 socially distanced version of Mardi Gras, where instead of crowding around floats throwing toys and beads, we’ve been wandering the city on foot and by car to see house floats – thousands of homes and businesses throughout the city decorated as parade floats. Krewe of House Floats promoted this safe parade concept, encouraging people to use local businesses and artists to help decorate their places, or go DIY, then register on their map. In the search for these fun and fabulous house floats, I’ve already covered St. Charles Ave.,  Magazine Street, the Irish Channel, Mid-City and the Garden District and Lower Garden District.

The historic French Quarter doesn’t have the luxury of large front lawns to take on their Yardi Gars displays, so lots of people chose to decorate their wrought iron balconies. My favorite is probably the Krewe of Sub-Krewe house with it’s life-sized  paper mache 610 Stomper and Pussyfooters dancers.

House Floats – St. Charles Ave.

St. Charles is famous in part for being the grand avenue the Uptown parades roll during Carnival in New Orleans. This time of year, the live-oak-and-manor-home lined avenue is normally crowded with ladder chairs topped with children, ice chests and barbecues, and throngs of festively dressed parade-goers snatching beads, toys and cups from the air as massive, colorful floats roll by carrying dozens of Krewe members scattering throws. Mardi Gras is an act of love and festivity with the members of the various Krewes paying for everything from the throws, floats, bands and dancers to the police and clean-up. But COVID interrupted that act of generosity.

Not to be undone, the city has embraced “Yardi Gras.” Thousands of homes and businesses throughout the city (and even the world) are decorated as parade floats.