Krewe of Jingle Parade 2016

The Canal Street Home for the Holidays Krewe of Jingle Parade features dance troupes, stilt-walkers, marching bands, majorettes, floats, Santa and local favorite – Mr. Bingle. Organized by the Downtown Development District, the parade rolled for the 9th year, attracting locals and tourists – many in festive costumes of their own. Krewe of Jingle is one of my favorite parades to dance in with my “pink sisters,” the Pussyfooters.

Krewes of Hermes and d’Etat

The Mystic Krewe of Hermes kicked off the Friday before Fat Tuesday. Founded in 1937, the Krewe has  been parading longer than any other krewe that parades at night.  Some businessmen decided the best remedy for dealing with post – Great Depression woe was to expand Mardi Gras to a 5 day party. Their logic seems sound to me. Named for the messenger god, Hermes, the parade features colorful floats and some of the best school marching bands including St. Augustine, Warren Easton, Sophie B. Wright, Saint Paul’s School and Central Union High School from El Centro, CA. The Candy Girls  and parade-favorites 610 Stompers provided dancing and smiles. 

Krewes of Druid & Nyx

Krewe of Druids, founded in 1998, honors the Celtic priests who acted as mediators between people and their gods and nature. The krewe is fairly small and cloaked in secrecy. The first float didn’t pass us until almost 8pm. Kids have school, their parents have work but there were still plenty of families on the route giving it the miles-long-block-party feel I like. By tonight when I dance with the Pussyfooters in Krewe of Muses, the crowds will be thick with out-of-towners. Druids highlights included the Organ Grinders, the Amelia Earhawts and Sophie B. Wright’s marching band.

Krewes of Oshun & Cleopatra

Carnival season is in full swing with the rolling of parades in Metairie, Downtown and the Krewes of Oshun and Cleopatra rolling Uptown. I felt like a giddy kid all day (and yesterday and…) knowing that the city streets would soon fill with families and neighbors from both sides of the river. Oshun features plenty of school bands and youth dance troupes. I love the pageantry of the royalty in their vibrantly colored gowns with giant feather collars.

Krewe of Jingle Parade 2015 (finally)

After 2 catastrophic computer crashes and losing this blog post work (twice) as well as many photos, here is finally my post on the Krewe of Jingle Parade 2015. Organized by the Downtown Development District, the Canal Street Home for the Holidays Krewe of Jingle Parade features marching bands, majorettes, dance troupes, stilt-walkers, festive floats, Santa and local favorite – Mr. Bingle. (For the history of Mr. Bingle, click HERE). As one of the 125-or-so Pussyfooters dancers, I get to see the spectacle from the inside-out including festively dressed children and kids-at-heart waving as we pass. 

Krewes of Thoth and Bacchus

As a member of the Pussyfooters, I danced in 2 Mardi Gras parades this year, Muses and Krewe of Thoth. Best known as “the children’s parade for it’s inclusion of the children’s hospital, Thoth has the longest parade route at about 11 miles. That’s a lot of dancing, but I comfort myself thinking of the kids carrying sousaphones and bass drums. The weather was nice again and crowds were thick. We passed Okeanos lining up on our way to Thoth then jumped into the parade a few floats after the Muff-A-Lottas passed by.(Okay, first there were about 2 hours of waiting but we kept ourselves entertained).

Easter Parades, Crawfish and Family

Easter weekend brought beautiful weather, Easter parades and crawfish boils. We went to our first family boil Friday night then followed it with another boil Saturday for a family reunion in Baton Rouge. I love being close to family and getting to know people who remember me as a child. After so many years of feeling untethered in L.A., I like seeing my nose on someone else’s face or hearing someone talk about when my parents were kids. Then it was back to New Orleans. Easter Sunday is a big day for parades in the French Quarter and we made it to 2 of the 3 offered.

Krewes of Iris and Tucks Parades

Saturday was beautiful. Finally. A great day for parades. They started early with the women’s Krewe of Iris (est. 1917) having fun with their “Iris Rocks” theme. The Krewe of Tucks (founded in 1969 by a group of Loyola students) continued their toilet humor with their “Tucks Lives the Sportin’ Life” theme and throws like hand-decorated toilet brushes. I’m not normally a fan of bathroom humor but Tucks gets bigger and better every year and is one of the most colorful parades in every way.

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.

Parades! Oshun and Cleopatra

The official Carnival parades kicked off with the Krewes of Oshun and Cleopatra on Friday night.  Oshun, named for the African goddess of fountains, love, wealth and religion, features peacock symbology and finely feathered royalty including Christopher Brown as King Shango, Queen Laquina Ladmirault Brown, Grand Marshall WDSU’s Damon Singleton and Ms. Black Lousiana, Chelsea Smith. Established in 1996, this year’s theme was “Night Out in the Big City.” My favorite float had to be the Saints Superfans float. Superfan Larry Jehle Jr. AKA “Saints Fett” passed last week after battling leukemia and, though he only ever got to attend one game inside the Dome, even Drew Brees mourns his loss.