Krewes of Druids, Chaos and Muses 2023

I haven’t been taking as many photos at night but wanted to share a few from the Krewes of Druids, Chaos and Muses. The final Wednesday of Carnival is the start of 7 straight days of parades – ending with Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). Founded in 1998, the Krewe of Ancient Druids honors the Celtic priests who acted as mediators between people and their gods and nature. The relatively small krewe of 200 masked, Merlin-capped riders remains anonymous – hidden behind masks.

Thursday is known as Thersday around here, honoring the all-female Krewe of Muses. I normally dance with my Pussyfooters sisters in Muses so I rarely get to see the Knights of Chaos parade.

Krewe of Ancient Druids 2022

The last Wednesday of Carnival is the kickoff to 7 straight days of parades – ending with Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). The weather was phenomenal – 75 and balmy – for The Krewe of Ancient Druids parade. Druids was founded in 1998 and honors the Celtic priests who acted as mediators between people and their gods and nature.

Krewes of Druid and Nyx

Wednesday night, the final week of Carnival kicked off with the Krewe of Ancient Druids and Krewe of Nyx parades. Last year, we braved freezing rain but the skies were clear for this year’s festivities. Druids may have taken their ribbing of female parades too far with their Louisiana Purchase card (our version of food stamps) float displaying a sign reading, “Preferred Card of all Female Mardi Gras Krewes.” But the parade was fun, traditional and featured fun female dance troupes like Organ Grinders and Amelia Earhawts (who seem to be parading every day!).

Krewes of Druid and Nyx Parades

Wednesday was the Krewe of Ancient Druids (established 1998) parade followed by the newest women’s parade – the Mystic Krewe of Nyx in their 3rd year. I’m scrambling to manage my schedule so apologies for not doing links to other sites, photo labels and descriptions of the evening. Since I can’t label the photos (or narrow them down much), here are the dance teams and bands I photographed at Druids: Chalmette, Shine Time, John Ehret, Helen Cox, Gris Gris Strut, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Sci Academy, Sophie B. wright, Xtreme Voltage and Superstar Steppers.

Krewes of Nyx and Ancient Druids

Though the last 2 weeks have been a very big adventure, I’ll admit I’ve missed the simple joy of hanging out with neighbors, dancing to marching bands and collecting a haul of plastic treasure. After a break to host the Super Bowl, Carnival began again last night and the city turned out despite the constant rain. First up was Krewe of Ancient Druids. Founded in 1998, the krewe honors the Celtic priests who acted as mediators between the people and their gods and nature. Their krewe is fairly small with never more than 200 members and secrecy shrouds their membership.