Parades

Mardi Gras parades are a big attraction. Many locals have their favorites and by not following the crowds, you can often get a better perspective on the Big Easy.

The parades are put on by private organizations known as "krewe's"; they do not receive any government or corporate sponsorship.

Watching a parade in New Orleans is a participatory party; crowds dance to the music of the bands and clamour for "throws". Throws are the trinkets thrown from "krewe" members on the floats to the crowd, including plastic beads and cups (often decorated with the emblem of the krewe), "dubloons" - small aluminum discs like a souvenir coin, and various toys and gee-gaws.

Pick up the Mardi Gras Guide magazine, or consult the newspapers for parade schedules and routes. Note that many of the smaller parades, marching krewes, neighborhood pageants, Mardi Gras Indians, etc are usually not listed in these schedules.

Biggest Parades

 • Endymion - Saturday night before Mardi Gras
 • Bacchus - Sunday night before Mardi Gras. Krewe of Bacchus features national celebrity monarchs each year, and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors. (read crowded)
 • Orpheus - Monday night before Mardi Gras, known as "Lundi Gras" ("Fat Monday). Musician oriented krewe, Harry Connick Jr. is the Krewe captain.
 • Zulu - Mardi Gras morning The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club parade is well known for its interesting history and "golden nugget" (coconut) parade throws.
 • Rex - Mardi Gras day after Zulu Founded in 1872, "Rex...King of Carnival" has been the international symbol of New Orleans Mardi Gras since the Krewe first appeared. Rex was the first Krewe to hold an organized daytime Parade and remains the main event Parade of Mardi Gras Day.

Other parades of interest

The nights of the week leading up to Mardi Gras, in addition to the days on the weekend before Mardi Gras, have numerous parades.
 • Krewe du Vieux - 3 Saturdays before Mardi Gras, the earliest parade in the New Orleans Carnival calendar is noted for satirical and off color floats and costumes
 • Barkus: - 2 weekends before Mardi Gras the official unofficial dog parade in the French Quarter. Too fun, usually early in parade season before most tourists arrive. A non-profit organization, it raises funds every year to benefit local animal shelters and national humane societies.
 • Morpheus
 • Isis
 • Hermes: Founded in 1938 by a group of businessmen, the Krewe of Hermes takes its name from the Greek Messenger of the Gods and an updated golden statute of the sandaled and winged courier appears at the head of the procession. This Krewe was the first to introduce neon lighting as a means of float illumination to the Mardi Gras celebrations. With the withdrawal from the Parade Schedule of Comus, Momus and Proteus, Hermes became the oldest traditional night parade.

Small krewes

There are dozens of small neighborhood krewes and walking clubs, including:
 • Society of Saint Anne - marching club through the Bywater, Marigny, and French Quarter neighborhoods on Mardi Gras morning, with some of the most elaborate and creative costumes seen.
 • Krewe of Kosmic Debris - one of the most informal krewes; if you play a portable musical instrument you can show up in costume and jam on Dixieland standards as the Kosmic Debris roams from bar to bar in the French Quarter, starting on Frenchmen Street at noon on Mardi Gras Day
 • Mystical Krewe of Chartreuse marches after the day parades and before Bacchus on Fat Sunday. Headed by some of the wildest folk in living history, do not miss the parade named for the liquor made from 130 plants and herbs by monks. This will not be in other tour books and is so drunken and raucous you will run home crying if you're not careful. You have been warned.
 • Krewe of Dead Elvis - the first of the walking krewes organized on the internet, in the Quarter on Mardi Gras Day.
 • Jefferson City Buzzards - the oldest traditional walking krewe; men from a working class neighborhood of Uptown have been drinking lots of beer and giving out flowers to pretty gals in exchange for a kiss while parading downtown every year since 1890.
 • Krewe of Dreux - one of the largest alternative Mardi Gras celebrations, out in Gentilly on the Saturday afternoon before Mardi Gras.
 • Pete Fountain's Half Fast Marching Club headed by the city's most famous Dixieland clarinetist who leads his band on a small float, the Half Fast wind through uptown down to the Quarter on Mardi Gras Day.

Family Friendly Mardi Gras

While some visitors think of Mardi Gras as a "Girls Gone Wild" event, for many locals and visitors Mardi Gras is kid-friendly family fun. Stay away from the rowdies on Bourbon Street; catch the parades Uptown on Saint Charles Avenue anywhere above Lee Circle up to Napoleon Avenue (Note: on Mardi Gras Day Zulu parades only on the portion of the route from Jackson Avenue down). Most kids love the excitement of catching the beads; for safety just make sure they don't try to run up too close to the floats. On Lundi Gras (the Monday before Mardi Gras), the festivities in Waldenberg Park (along the Mississippi by the upper French Quarter just below Canal Street) includes a children's stage. On Mardi Gras Day dress the family in matching costumes to be thrown extra beads and have extra fun.

Other Events

Mardi Gras Indians, Bourbon Street, Lundi Gras in Waldenburg Park, Arrival of Kings of the Zulus and Rex, costume parties, balls, block parties

Links

MardiGras.com

 • New Orleans Overview

Overview

Costumed musicians in the French Quarter, Mardi Gras Day

The festival is rooted in the ancient European Carnival traditions. It marks the final celebrations before the period of fasting during Lent in the Roman Catholic Religion, although New Orleans Carnival is enjoyed by people of any belief.

For locals, "Mardi Gras" strictly speaking is only the last and biggest day of the Carnival season, "Fat Tuesday". Visitors less clear on this distinction sometimes call the whole New Orleans Carnival season "Mardi Gras". The final big day is thus sometimes called by the (technically redundant) name "Mardi Gras Day".

After spotty earlier festivities, parades roll every night starting 2 weekends before Mardi Gras. Things kick into high gear the weekend before Mardi Gras, when the population of New Orleans more than doubles (book a room well in advance!). There's an all day party along the riverfront downtown on Lundi Gras ("Fat Monday", the day before Mardi Gras) followed by more parades that evening, and just when you think things couldn't get more wild, the climax of Mardi Gras Day takes Carnival to an entirely new level.

Wearing a mask or costume on Mardi Gras Day is highly recommended by Mardi Gras Veterans, one becomes part of the party, rather than just watching it. Veterans also start the party in the morning on Mardi Gras Day, even if you aren't usually a morning person. Mardi Gras ends promptly at midnight Tuesday.

The next day is Ash Wednesday (nicknamed locally "Trash Wednesday" from the debris left in the streets from the parties), the start of Lent. Wearing Mardi Gras beads during Lent will mark you as a tourist ignorant of local customs.

Date of Mardi Gras

 • 2004 - 24 February
 • 2005 - 8 February
 • 2006 - 28 February
 • 2007 - 20 February
 • 2008 - 5 February
 • 2009 - 24 February
 • 2010 - 16 February
 • 2011 - 8 March
 • 2012 - 21 February
 • 2013 - 12 February
 • 2014 - 4 March