New Orleans Mardis Gras 2024

It’s not our first Rodeo (we are picking up the lingo) but we love it. We reckon that hanging around with young people keeps us young. There are also plenty of older people like us, behaving like children! Sorry in advance, the pictures tell the story and no, we weren’t in bars all the time, honest!!

New Orleans is steeped in history and culture which makes it magical. On a bend of the Mississippi its rich soils of the surrounding lands made for crops and wealth, shown off through the incredible homes built in The Garden District as well as the Plantation Houses on the Great River Road. New Orleans conjures up emotions of all kinds from its slave history and exploitation, to the modern day businesses and tourism. We spent a week here, wandering, exploring, people watching and staying up far too late for our weary bodies but hey, we can recover later, right?! Here’s a summary of the many aspects to our time and some of the history.

The Mardis Gras event has religious roots. Festivities start in New Orleans each year on January 6, aka Twelfth Night or the feast of the Epiphany. Hence the tradition of ‘King Cake’. Mardi Gras, the French phrase for Fat Tuesday, is the culmination of the season and ahead of Lent. Same as our traditions for ‘pancake day’ eating up all nice food before Lent. On Bourbon Street, the epicentre of the ‘festivities’ there’s always folks with placards and loud hailers preaching about sinful behaviour and berating the revellers, we do wonder if it’s wrong time wrong place for them as they get a ton of abuse hurled at them. On the final evening, a long line of ‘older white men’ marching with a cross down the street, rammed with party goers is probably not the wisest!

Apparently, Mardi Gras goes back to the 18th century, the first formal parade in 1857, (Mistick Krewe of Comus) however it was later that ‘Krewes’ started to make their mark and it became a carnival of sorts. After the Civil War, many new Krewes, (bit like Carnival members clubs) emerged. The Krewe of Rex, still going today as a Super Krewe started in 1872, and selected the carnival colors (purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power) These colours are everywhere, balconies, smart houses and in the dress code.

Dressing up is part of the season, in fact, it’s uncommon not to. There’s incredible creations and many home grown, a dazzling array of artistry and colour. It doesn’t matter what day it is at all, but the culmination of it is on Fat Tuesday in The St Ann’s (a street) Walking Parade where anyone can join in, strolling through the French Quarter. Us included! We particularly loved ‘Krewe of LazyBoys’!

There are lots of small parades but the most spectacular are those of the Super Krewes, Rex, Orpheus, Bacchus, Endymion and Zulu. Combined, these are over 150 floats, some over 300ft long, and as many marching bands. The Super Krewes also tend to have guest celebs. as Kings and Queens. We’ve seen Hugh Laurie and Harry Connick Jr for example. A Krewe is basically a private club where its members contribute a fee and also spend a lot of $ funding the beads and other gifts thrown off the floats. Many are charitable and are involved in a lot of good works through the year. When the parades slowly grind their way along the streets, you can’t help but get caught up in the screaming, cheering, reaching and trying to catch beads and everything else thrown off. It’s harmless fun and there’s a kindred spirit of friendship and fun everywhere. We met lots of fab people and have a selection of our trinket catches to bring home. This includes ‘Mardi P’ our luminous pig 😀

It’s not just the people who dress up, all the shop windows and peoples homes are decorated. We decorated our van with our beads! After all, the event attracts nearly 2m people to N’Awlins so it puts its best face on. All the best Jazz, Blues and Cajun musicians head to town and we caught some brilliant sounds at favourite places such as The Black Cat and Fritzel’s, the oldest jazz pub on Bourbon. There was a heady sound all through the streets too if away from the booming sounds on Bourbon at ‘Krazy Corner’. We had a laugh there though as there’s a live webcam so we waved to Nicks mum and dad. Yeah we did get a few odd glances!

Away from the mellee, the Mighty Mississippi is always evocative. ‘The Natchez’ paddle steamer continues to play it’s own tune and some of the street cars still run, away from the parade routes. It’s a fabulous wander along the banks, catching the breeze and thinking about the stories that the waters no doubt hold. There’s plenty of really old buildings still around that area, some a bit the worse for wear, others selling tourist ‘souvenirs’ no doubt to the visitors off the two Disney Cruise boats moored up.

We were parked at a super location, on the edge of the French Quarter so a 10 minute walk to the ‘action’. We had brilliant neighbours, guess what, they were Canadian (all the best neighbours are) from Montreal. We had a fun time with them. After the partying finished, we spent the following day, as New Orleans took a big sigh, on the bikes around the city. The city does the most incredible clean up job, night after night but there’s some aspects that take time, like getting the beads out of the trees on parade routes! In the swanky Garden District many houses were dressed or being undressed. Can never tire of walking those very crumbly streets. There’s a new tradition since Covid, when festivities were cancelled, called ‘Yardy Gras’ which involves people dressing their houses up like floats, so people could just drive around and look. Seems to have stuck as a new aspect of celebrations (and perhaps out doing the Jones’s?)

As before, the architecture of New Orleans never disappoints. It is magical, stunning, grand and showy, like the city. Of course there’s a lot that isn’t that we’ve written about before and I could go on all day about the conditions many Americans live in (in my humble opinion) and the great divides. It’s a wonder where all the income gets spent, it’s certainly not on the roads or in communities it seems, but appears to be on big ‘tourist’ items. It’s hosting the Super Bowl next year, how can one of the poorest States do that, or is it just football money on football? Who knows!

Anyhow, this won’t be our last rodeo, we know we’ll be back again to experience the charm of New Orleans, be it in Mardis Gras or not. We always enjoy it, the atmosphere, the friendliness of the people and the fun, the memories made. It’s an enchanting place. Below are some random favourite pics, such as the level of security. Chatting to them they are just a deterrent and never needed, thank goodness as the bloke on top would drop his coffee! The Uncle Sam conspiracy theory bloke was there again, you’ll have to click on the pics!

For anyone interested, this is a link to the blog we wrote back in December 2021 when we last visited. https://thetravellingcat.blog/2021/12/15/southern-belles-the-blues/