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.

Louisiana Comic Con

The Louisiana Comic Con invited me to it’s second showing in Lafayette this weekend. I’m still fairly new to the convention circuit. There seems to be some skill involved in knowing how to make a fan’s experience fun and memorable and I’m still learning what to write on my different photos. I may not have always had the perfect inscription, but I genuinely enjoyed meeting so many film and TV lovers. And as a Comic Con, there were many people dressed as cosplay characters – which was a lot of fun. Suicide Squad‘s Harley Quinn was definitely a favorite. Hosting the Con at the Cajundome Convention Center in Lafayette meant that after cosplay characters, the second most popular “look” was Saints clothes. It may have been the Saints’ bye week, but the Who Dat Nation doesn’t take the week off from showing their devotion.

Krewe of Chewbacchus Parade

Normally I attend Sparta and Pygmalion’s parades, but this year I opted for the 4th Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus parade. The Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus describes itself as, “A Mardi Gras parade organization for the most revelrous Star Wars Freaks, Trekkies, Whovians, Mega-Geeks, Gamers, Cosplayers, Circuit Benders, Cryptozooligists, UFO Conspiracy Theorists, Mad Scientists and all the rest of Super Nerdom.”

It was a long walk from the Uptown parade route to the Marigny (about 4 miles) but it was fun passing all the children playing football and jumping rope with beads they’d just caught while we strolled through parade leftovers on St. Charles. When we arrived at the Chewbacchus route, it was immediately obvious that this was a crowd of mostly locals. Everyone stood respectfully on the curb and no one pushed past me to catch a throw. And the parade itself was pure New Orleans – full of music, creativity, pageantry, silliness and commentary.