The Black Masking Indians, or Mardi Gras Indians, flooded the Uptown streets with spectacular feathered suits they spent the year carefully designing and crafting – storytelling bead by bead. Super Sunday was postponed a week to avoid rain, but it was 70’s and breezy for one of my favorite days of the year. Though my schedule is full right now finishing a documentary on our city’s precarious relationship with tourism, I wanted to share some of the staggering beauty. For more history,  check out the origins of the Mardi Gras Indians and the battle for their right to parade.   ..read more

The French Quarter’s Satchmo Summerfest celebrates New Orleans native, Louis Armstrong’s birthday. The free 2-day celebration with live music and local food, takes place in the French Quarter at the Old U.S. Mint – home to the New Orleans Jazz Museum where you can find Armstrong’s first coronet. The heat has been extreme for weeks. I believe the heat index Saturday was 117 degrees, but we were looking forward to finally being out and about. When we arrived, the 79ers Gang were playing on the Barrack’s Street Stage to a mostly seated crowd under an ample tent. A couple ..read more

It was cool and breezy for the day of the 40th French Quarter Fest (FQF), perfect for picnicking and dancing to local favorites. We started behind the Old U.S. Mint with Happy Talk Band. We’re used to seeing young people join the ranks of our city’s bands to learn from their elders, but the 10-year-old son of one of the band members truly held his own on keyboards. It was impressive. Afterward, we tried the Cochon King BBQ Brisket Burnt Ends and got a box of Original “Yellow Bag” Crawfish 5lb Combo ($30) from Louisiana Fish Fry with NOLA Crawfish King – my first c ..read more

Saturday, day 3 of French Quarter Fest, is usually crowded but rain kept the stages empty for much of the day. Many people who normally drive in for the day from across the lake and other neighboring areas opted to stay home. Rather than face the impending deluge, we joined an out-of-town friend and her first-timer friends for brunch at Muriel’s on Jackson Square. In addition to my Shrimp & Grits, I was thrilled to share the Crawfish & Goat Cheese Crêpes the restaurant has always sold during the fest – until this year. Not only was it nice to have shelter from the downpour, Muriel’s al ..read more

Super Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year – especially for photos. Some of New Orleans’ 50+ Mardi Gras Indian tribes gather around A.L. Davis Park to show off their incredible suits of feathers, beads, ribbons and treasures. We arrived early to choose from the many food trucks and pop-ups serving everything from red beans and rice to adult beverages served in hollowed-out pineapples. Neighbors and friends gathered in yards and empty lots and around the occasional Rolls Royce, Bentley, or tricked out vintage car. Though we’d all been enjoying sunny, 80-degree weather a day o ..read more

Established in 1947, the Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Day Club‘s Irish Channel Parade features over-1400 walkers, mostly wearing black suits and/or kilts with green accessories, who swap kisses (mostly on the cheek) for flowers and trinkets. Also included are bagpipers, the green-afroed women of Alter Egos, and the wigged, blue-stripe-painted, kilt-wearing men of the Braveheart Warriors Marching Club. But the parade is best known for the dozens of double-decker floats throwing everything from beads to cabbages – and this year I was one of the people throwing! When you m ..read more

Everywhere else it’s just Tuesday, but in New Orleans it’s the explosive fireworks finale of over a month of festivities ending in 7 straight days of parades. There are plenty of Uptown parades on Fat Tuesday – the Krewe of Zulu and Krewe of Rex are 2 of the city’s oldest, but after attending dozens of parades (and me dancing with the Pussyfooters in 2 of them), for us – Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday in French) is for wandering the French Quarter and Marigny taking in all the silly, imaginative and/or beautiful costumes people create. For my husband, it’s his favorite day of the year and h ..read more

Lundi Gras is the last night of the big Uptown float parades. The oldest night parade is Krewe of Proteus – established in 1882. From what I can see, the beautiful floats still sit atop the original wooden chassis. Everyone I knew was too beat to go out or was conserving their energy for the Fat Tuesday merrymaking, so I went by myself. My first full Carnival season after moving here was in 2010, when the Saints won the Super Bowl DURING the Mardi Gras festivities. It was amazing – and I blogged all about it – complete with videos! I attended dozens of parades, many of ..read more

A favorite of kids of all ages, the Krewe of Tucks parade features hand-decorated scrub brushes and plungers as well as other toilet-themed beads and toys. The weather was beautiful as school marching bands and adult dance/walking krewes filled the Avenue and floats filled trees with festive toilet paper. This years’s participants included Crescent City Fae, Dance Connection, Muff-A-Lottas, Mande Milkshakers, Laissez Boys, Alter Egos, Streetcar Strutters, Dames de Perlage and the Sassyracs. There was also a lot of live music like longtime riders Pink Slip.  Next up – b ..read more