NEW ORLEANS MARDI GRAS

Parade News, Party Pictures, Videos, Music, Schedules & More

Metairie and Jefferson Parish Mardi Gras krewes have updated the times and dates for their 2009 parades. Changes from the 2008 schedule are noted below.

The Krewe of Alla will roll at noon through Gretna, and the Krewe of Rhea will roll at 1 p.m. through Metairie on Sunday February 15, 2009.

The Krewe of Thor will roll at 7 p.m. through Metairie on Wednesday, February 18, 2009.

The Krewe of Isis will roll at 6:30 p.m. through Metairie on Saturday, September 21, 2009.

The Krewe of Napoleon returns to its tradition Sunday parade beginning at 5:30 p.m in Metairie. The parade had been moved to Saturday in 2008 due to the Superbowl.

View the complete list of 2009 Mardi Gras parades. »

A totally unexpected late-night phone call from Deep Float sent me into an unheard-of summertime clandestine meeting at an undisclosed location with Carnival's most famous double secret covert espionage agent.

Deep Float, distant cousin of Watergate secret informant Deep Throat and pilferer of Carnival themes and secrets for years, told me he had a super scoop.

"I thought you hunkered down after the Carnival season, went into hibernation," I said.

"A legendary spy never goes off duty. I sleep with one eye open. My radar is always on, my antennas up, my ear to the ground," he said in his signature raspy voice.

Continue reading "Deep Float checks in with the scoop on a new Uptown parade route" »

The Jefferson Parish Council chose Coastal Waste Services for its lucrative and politically sensitive garbage contract Wednesday, but it remains be seen how high fees will rise for household collection.

Continue reading "Jeff council selects Coastal for garbage deal" »

The Mystic Krewe of Shangri-La has announced that it will not parade in 2009 for economic reasons.

Continue reading "Shangri-La says it won't parade in 2009" »

Below are the future dates for Fat Tuesday through 2021.

For more on the dates of Mardi Gras and Carnival, check our Mardi Gras FAQ!

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February 24, 2009
February 16, 2010
March 8, 2011
February 21, 2012
February 12, 2013
March 4, 2014
February 17, 2015
February 9, 2016
February 28, 2017
February 13, 2018
March 5, 2019
February 25, 2020
February 16, 2021

Share your Mardi Gras with us. Did you snap a great shot of your best friend getting smacked with a big strand of beads? Are you looking for a place to share the hilarious video you shot of the kids doing the Mardi Gras mambo? How about that snarky or poignant essay that should be shared with the world?
Here's your one stop shop to give us any or all of those and allow the world to see the best Carnival has to offer.

• Photos: Send your shots

• Videos: Upload revelry

• Stories: Share your insights

• Forum: Talk Mardi Gras

Furry friends revel at Mandeville lake front for the 10th annual Mardi Paws parade. Watch video.

Mardi Paws 2008

Rex 2008

Judging by the mounds of broken beads, plastic bags and food scraps left in the wake of this week's parades -- and the number of workers needed to clean it all up -- Carnival has rebounded to its pre-Hurricane Katrina strength, New Orleans' sanitation director said Wednesday.

Though City Hall no longer measures the season's success by the amount of garbage left on the streets -- the method encourages revelers to trash the city, officials say -- Sanitation Director Veronica White said that based on the number of laborers and pieces of heavy machinery she deployed to clean up after parades this year, the celebration has returned to levels unseen since the August 2005 hurricane.

Continue reading "Piles of trash don't lie: Mardi Gras has rebounded" »

My final day of my Mardi-marathon saw newfound adrenaline and the beginning of a love affair with Carnival season. It is like nothing I've ever experienced before. I will definitely make plans to come to Mardi Gras ever year from now on, no matter where I end up.

Continue reading "Diary of a Mini Mardi-marathon: Day 3" »

Day 2 of my mini-marathon proved to be emotionally draining but definitely worth it. Tucks was the parade of the day for me with plastic plungers, toilets and the 501st Legion.

Continue reading "Diary of a Mini Mardi-marathon: Day 2" »

Being that it was my first Mardi Gras, I decided to celebrate this past weekend the right way and go to every parade I could stuff into my hectic schedule.

The result was exhaustion, lots of beads but a whole lot more fun memories.

Continue reading "Diary of a Mini Mardi-marathon: Day 1" »

A little-noticed Mardi Gras parade is the "symbolic" closing of Bourbon Street that marks the official end of Carnival season.

Continue reading "Bourbon Street 'closing' is a show in itself" »

From the raucous and the rebellious to the sweet and the sentimental, costumes ruled the day

Usually when the Roussell family of Edgard stakes out a spot along St. Charles Avenue in the wee hours of Mardi Gras morning to watch the Zulu and Rex parades, the space is ample and the people are sparse.

Not so this year.

By 7 a.m., as Quentin Roussell fried up eggs and bacon a few blocks from the intersection of Jackson and St. Charles avenues, where the parades converge, families that did not already have their tents and grills set up were mostly out of luck.

Continue reading "Carnival time in New Orleans" »

Once upon a time, Cherie and Randy Rose of Metairie -- dressed up for Fat Tuesday as the Woodsman and the Grandmother -- would have been standing along St. Charles Avenue on Mardi Gras. But that was before the arrival of the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Sarah, 8, and Sophie, 6.

These days, they stay closer to home.

"Metairie's the family area," Randy Rose said, as the Brothers Grimm-inspired family stood on Veterans Memorial Boulevard near Causeway Boulevard before the start of the Krewe of Argus parade Tuesday.

Thousands more joined them along the Metairie parade route on Mardi Gras.

Continue reading "Jeff streets full of Fat Tuesday frivolity" »

Clowns and dragons joined school buses and antique cars as the Lions Club and Mystic Krewe of Covington parades rolled through the krewe's namesake city Tuesday morning, greeted by crowds that packed the narrow streets.

Far less raucous than the marquee New Orleans parades, the processions drew hoots and cheers from throngs of spectators, mostly parents and their children.

It was a fairly calm Fat Tuesday; Covington police said they were not called on to break up any fights, and made only one arrest. A couple of minor incidents, including a brick thrown through the window of a police car as it drove in the parade, did little to disrupt the festivities.

Continue reading "Covington streets full of families and fun" »

By Jeff Adelson
St. Tammany bureau

A Covington woman was attacked Monday morning by a
New Orleans man dressed in
Carnival garb that she met
through the Internet, Covington
police said Tuesday.

Continue reading "Woman attacked by man in Carnival garb, police say" »

A girl fell from a truck float in a Metairie parade on Fat Tuesday, but she is fine, said Col. John Fortunato, Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman.

He didn't know the girl's age.

There were no other major incidents on the Metairie parade route, Fortunato said this afternoon.

Download audio blog live from Rex courtesy of NOLA.com editor Jon Donley

Download audio blog live right after the Zulu parade courtesy of NOLA.com editor Jon Donley

Most of those gathered in downtown Covington for the city's Mardi Gras parades adhered to the event's family-friendly atmosphere, but the day didn't pass without a couple of police incidents.

Continue reading "Covington parades see two police incidents" »

Just ask the Mutter family: What's Mardi Gras without traditions?

Continue reading "Parking lot a family Carnival tradition" »

Some people walking around Faubourg Marigny this morning were clad in costumes bearing a nautical theme. One depicted a jellyfish, while another -- worn by a sail boat captain from the coastal town of Newport in Rhode Island -- portrayed a pirate.

Continue reading "Mona Lisa strolls the Marigny" »

Clowns and dragons joined school busses and antique cars as the Lions Club and Mystikal Krewe parades rolled through Covington this morning, greeted by crowds that packed the narrow streets.

Continue reading "Covington parades draw family-oriented crowd" »

The crowd was more than 10 people thick in parts of Severn Avenue in Metairie as Mardi Gras throngs clamored for throws from Krewe of Argus riders.

Continue reading "Crowds swarm Argus parade in Metairie" »

Members of the Mardi Gras Indian tribe Black Feather gathered about 10:30 this morning near the intersection of North Villere and Frenchmen streets, in the 7th Ward, at the home of their big chief, preparing to celebrate Fat Tuesday.

Continue reading "Black Feather tribe joins Carnival celebration" »

As the float of King Zulu Frank Boutte stopped in front of Gallier Hall on St. Charles Avenue just before 11 a.m. today, Mayor Ray Nagin, dressed in a brown Native American outfit with a white feather headdress, offered a rousing toast.

Continue reading "Zulu king toasted at Gallier Hall" »

Debbie Harvey of Covington had been planning her Mardi Gras wear since last year. Three months ago she ordered her costume, but ran into a slight problem: "It was supposed to be a jester costume, but the jester hat was too uncomfortable."

Continue reading "Jester costume gets a makeover" »

Thousands of people lined Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie on Mardi Gras as the Krewe of Argus prepared to roll at 10 a.m.

Continue reading "Revelers costume in Metairie" »

Years ago, we saw hundreds of black and red oval stickers, slapped on the heads, tails and clothing of Mardi Gras revelers, before we spotted an oval on a stick - "Bead Whore" - carried by the pair of young ladies who'd created the popular pendant beads. From Mardi Gras to spring breaks to the (Des Moines) Register's Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (seriously), the little band of bead-wanglers road-tripped their way across the country to any celebration liable to spark Bourbon Street-style bead-flinging.

So I was a bit shocked today when Bead Whore Betty (her business name) called me over to say hi, and I noticed the unlikely set of beads around her neck. A laminated parody of the signs carried by the street preachers attracted to Mardi Gras - "Ask Me Why You Deserve Hell" complete with a finger-pointing hand surrounded by flames. The beads inclduded a red wooden cross and a tiny Holy Bible, which appears (to my old lame eyes) to actually contain the entire scripture in 1/2-point type.

Continue reading "Say what? Beads twist message of street preachers" »

Filming on Bourbon

Mardi Gras celebrants on Bourbon Street on Monday afternoon expressed displeasure to find signs warning them that they were being filmed for a movie . . . and a huge obstruction including a camera crane, a platform and police barricades blocking Bourbon at Bienville, one of the busiest stretches of the world-famous party street.

The signs were posted by Mardi Gras Louisiana Inc., and lacked the normal government permit notice that appears during New Orleans' frequent movie shoots.

Police at the scene said they had no idea who had given the crew permission to obstruct Bourbon Street during the busiest time of the heavy Mardi Gras season.

Continue reading "Rant: Film crew blocks revelers on busy Bourbon Street" »

Lundi Gras Second Line

Jon Donley / NOLA Raw Video

A unified parade by New Orleans' second-line organizations rolled for two hours straight near the French Quarter without a hitch today, accompanied by a half-dozen New Orleans Police Department officers on motorcycles and three more in squad cars.

On Friday, a federal judge denied the NOPD's last-minute efforts to halt the street parade, citing another group's opposition and a lack of law-enforcement manpower.
"It's a beautiful day to celebrate our victory," said Katie Schwartzmann, a parade spectator who also is a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the New Orleans Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force in court last week.

If Rex could have his way on Mardi Gras, he'd be toasted with Barq's Root Beer.

John Koerner III, this year's king of Carnival, used to lead the company that makes the soft drink that's as closely tied to New Orleans as he is.

But it's not just brand loyalty talking.

Continue reading "John Edward Koerner III reigns as Rex 2008" »

Even when her father is a King, it's not a given that a girl will grow up to be a queen.

But it has worked out that way in the family of George King Logan II, who is known to friends and family by his middle name. This Mardi Gras, younger daughter Ellen Rogers Logan will reign as queen of Carnival, sharing the spotlight with Rex 2008, John Edward Koerner III, at tonight's Rex Organization ball.

"On some level, every little girl dreams of being a queen one day, but I never imagined this," Ellen said. However, she had a clue when she found a crown in the family's freezer.

Continue reading "Daughter of 'King' reigns as Carnival queen" »