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. Continue reading
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. Continue reading
It was a gorgeous 75 and sunny day for the 10th annual ‘tit Rex parade. The miniature parade is an adult, often satirical spectacle of big creativity in tiny form. There were even people sipping little Bloody Mary’s, passing out tiny throws and cocktail umbrellas. Barbie and her friends in Mardi Gras beads crowded with their arms outstretched, their kids sitting in ladder chairs. Like my parents, people here grew up making shoebox floats in grade school and parading them down the halls, so the creations are nostalgic for many.
The weekend started with a new French Quarter walking parade from Krewe Boheme. Continue reading
Filed under Carnival, Culture, decorations and costumes, free events and lagniappe, history, Mardi Gras 2019, parade, walking
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. Continue reading
It’s Carnival time and the parades are in full swing. It was a balmy beautiful day for the Krewes of Pontchartrain and Choctaw so St. Charles was crowded with families, coolers and ladder chairs. Krewe of Pontchartrain (established 1975 and named for Lake Pontchartrain) is a tractor-drawn parade with an open door policy allowing even tourists to ride with them. The Big Easy Rollergirls got things “rolling” along with dance teams including The Dance Connection, Xtreme Voltage Dance Team, Dance Innovation and the Muff-A-Lottas (all pictured below). Continue reading
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. Continue reading
L.A. to N.O.LA 