Mardi Gras

The weather for Mardi Gras was a stark contrast to that that brought the world's media to New Orleans this year. The whole final weekend through Mardi Gras day itself was beautiful with blue skies and weather in the 70s and 80s. The crowds Uptown on Saturday afternoon were healthy but a little light. Our 11-month old daughter cleaned up; she collected at least 10 cuddly toys from Iris alone. By all accounts it was a different story in the CBD and on Canal Street--the poorer people and tourists usually watch parades here--where crowds were sparse.
Perhaps the only hint that things weren't really the same Uptown was that you didn't have to buy a pass to go to the bathroom at the Superior Grill. Few people were eating inside too.

The threat of rain Saturday night, coupled with the attention of the media, led to the unheard of cancelling of the Super Krewe Endymion's Parade in the evening. Parades do get cancelled in active heavy rain, but Endymion pulled the trigger early for fear of weather related accidents with the world watching. The result of the first ever cancelling of Endymion? The biggest parade day in New Orleans Mardi Gras history!

Endymion rolled after Bacchus and a full set of day parades. It seemed everyone who had come back to New Orleans plus the population of Jefferson Parish was camped on the neutral ground Uptown. We certainly had never seen crowds quite so dense (perhaps there were fewer down in the CBD). The parades were rolling by for about 10 hours. Our daughter wouldn't let us stay for Endymion but it was a spectacular day.

Monday night was also spectacular with lighter (more normal crowds), and we must thank the rider in Orpheus who gave our daughter 4 plushy monkeys, and the one that gave her a Leviathan.

There were a few disappointments in all of these parades that we should mention:

1. The first was the small number of marching bands. This of course is to be expected, only 20 of 120 schools in New Orleans are open. One of the high points of the week was the Lower 9th Ward Marching Band which consisted of middle age men and women marching in Proteus as a high school band, complete with cheerleaders and uniforms.
2. Tucks didn't seem to be throwing its trademark toilets.
3. King Kong and Queen Kong were missing from Bacchus. This appeared to be due to a lack of tractors (tractors pull the floats) caused by Endymion rolling on the same night. Ironically, a float in Bacchus broke down causing a major delay to Endymion's kick off.

The small Krewe of Mid City perhaps stole the show. Their Den was flooded during Katrina ruining many of the floats. They paraded nevertheless with a series of floats featuring biting satirical signs.

All in all, the Mardi Gras parades this year were fantastic.