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.

Krewe of Chewbacchus 2020

The unofficial start of the Carnival parade season used to be a week from now with Krewe Du Vieux, but the festivities began earlier for the second year with the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus. Though it got rolling with a dancing army of Princess Leia’s, Chewbacchus has widened its focus from Star Wars to include subkrewes with themes like Wakanda, Pokémon and Sharknadeaux – with people wearing toy sharks emerging from lit cottony tornadoes.

Krewe of Chewbacchus Parade

The unofficial start of the Carnival parade season kicked off a week early this year as the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus parade moved to a week before Krewe du Vieux. Chewbacchus features Star Wars and other sci fi and spacey themes. I love the Elliots riding bikes with E.T.’s in their baskets. The Wonder Women were especially impressive this year and I loved the King Cake Babies who all fell into position with their arms and feet in the air. 

Mardi Gras Wrap-Up 2016

This is my 7th full Mardi Gras/Carnival season and the evolution from parade-goer to parader continues. I’ve gone from attending dozens of parades alone to knowing people on the route to knowing people in the parade to riding in the Orpheus Monarch Float and becoming a Pussyfooter dancer in parades. Three years in, I’ve now helped a new batch of “Kittens” learn the dances and tricks for staying warm and comfortable while parading for miles and miles. I’ve gone from having every parade, Krewe, marching band, float, dance troupe and rolling krewe be new to me to knowing bands by their uniforms and floats by their designer and some by name.  Even the parade schedule is familiar. Very little is new anymore, now it’s anticipated and beloved.

Krewes of ‘tit Rex & Chewbacchus

While the giant Krewes of Sparta and Pygmalion floats rolled Uptown, we watched the miniature parade, ‘tit Rex, and the wonky and wonderful Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus parade Downtown. A reaction to the super Krewe parades, ‘tit Rex was inspired by the tradition of kids decorating shoeboxes and parading them through school. This was my first time making it across town in time for the parade and it was everything I’d heard. The crowds were huge and the floats were tiny, creative and often satirical.