The Nomadic Wanderings of Two Humans and One Dog: Carnival

Mardi Gras falls on that infamous Fat Tuesday, unfortunately we made our NOLA exit before then, but did however get to enjoy a month’s worth of Carnival festivities. Carnival season commences on January 6^th of every year and is full of parades, masquerade balls, beads, decorations and of course king cake; New Orleans is the only city I can think of in the United States that can pull off two months of celebration on such a grandiose scale; the Krewes, the city and citizens have it down to a science!

Our favorite parades were the kick off of parade season, “Krewe du Vieux” and “Krewe Delusion” and they are geared directly to the locals. Now for my Utah folks, think the Park City Follies and just take that, amp it up about ten times, and then put it into parade form. These parades are full of satire, humor, nudity and crass entertainment; I doubt we saw a single sober person while watching this parades and it was pure awe and amazement for close two straight hours!

We were lucky enough to find a balcony at Mimi’s in the Marigny and had a great view of the parades, we had access to the bar and convenient bathroom and I’ve heard these are the crucial points for pure parade enjoyment. Not only did we have an ideal location, but we got to hang out with a bunch of locals and witness the parades through their eyes, which made the experience that much more informative and fun; they were an encyclopedia of knowledge about the Krewes and if there was a float Tom and I didn’t quite pick up on, they were quick to explain the satire behind it.

The floats were amazing; seriously, try and visualize a twerking Governor Jindal robot! Yeah, we pretty much had two hours of this non-stop entertainment! And for folks down on the street, well they were keeping their buzz, beads with airplane liquor sized bottles attached to them were being liberally handed out by those in the marching groups. Now these parades are not cheap to put on, they are free to the public and not paid for by the city. That is right the Krewes put on their parades and pay for the floats, the flare they throw, and then they get ranked; of course the wealthier and more creative parades landing over Mardi Gras weekend, with the exception of the two we saw on kick off weekend, meaning they start off with high expectations and end on an even higher note!

Although it would have been great to stay for Mardi Gras weekend, alas it wasn’t in the budget this round, double for one week what we spent on rent for an entire month. So Mardi Gras will stay on the bucket list, even though we did get to see a bit more of a local aspect of the parades, from what I’ve heard there is nothing quite like Fat Tuesday on Bourbon Street!