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Mardi Gras, New Orleans

February 21, 2012 by · Comments Off on Mardi Gras, New Orleans 

Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Rocker Bret Michaels and Grammy-winning singer Cyndi Lauper were expected to usher in Mardi Gras with musical performances in the wee hours of the morning Tuesday.

Michaels, the bandana-wearing Poison frontman, and Lauper were the celebrity riders in Orpheus, the parade club founded in 1993 by New Orleans native actor and crooner Harry Connick Jr.

Just as the Orpheus ball was to wind down early Tuesday, revelers were gearing up for the Fat Tuesday parades rolling shortly after daybreak. Some revelers would party through the night.

Clarinetist Pete Fountain will be leading his marching band from the city’s Garden District to the French Quarter. The float parades follow Fountain and his “Half Fast Marching Club” – first the African-American Krewe of Zulu, the group known for the decorated coconuts it hands out to revelers, and the parade of Rex, King of Carnival.

Lent follows Fat Tuesday. It is the period of fasting and repentance before Easter Sunday.

The stakeout for prime spots along the Mardi Gras parade route started Monday, with legions of Carnival die-hards jockeying for the best places to vie for beads thrown from floats on Fat Tuesday.

For many, the celebration would be a continuation from the day before. Monday, or Lundi Gras as it’s called in New Orleans, included the ceremonial meeting between the king and queen of Zulu and Rex and his queen. The event was marked with live music, dancing and revelry on the riverfront Monday. Revelers in costume danced and posed for pictures with Mardi Gras Indians wearing elaborate costumes with feathers and beads.

Wearing a purple, green and gold afro-style wig, Syreeta Grace bobbed to the tunes of a brass band as Mardi Gras Indian in a blue feathered headdress strutted through a crowd of thousands. Revelers danced for hours to live music along the Mississippi River and some were staking out spots for Monday night’s celebrity-studded Orpheus parade.

Brenda Bonnette of Vidalia, La., had folding chairs set up on Canal Street hours before Orpheus was to roll. She was with her husband, 16-year-old daughter and her daughter’s two friends.

“We’re having a great time just waiting,” Bonnette said. “The girls are looking forward to the parade. They’ve been dancing all day.”

Tuesday marks the culmination of weeks of Carnival parades and parties. Sunday night, actor and comedian Will Ferrell rode in the Bacchus parade, and heavy rain didn’t stop the Endymion parade from rolling Saturday night with the pop-rock group Maroon 5 as its celebrity riders.

Mardi Gras New Orleans

February 20, 2012 by · Comments Off on Mardi Gras New Orleans 

Mardi Gras New Orleans, As Carnival builds toward the out-of-control crescendo of Fat Tuesday, Barry Kern and his team of float-builders and artists are already preparing for next year.

One of the biggest free parties in the world fuels a multimillion-dollar industry for the city of New Orleans and is the lifeblood of businesses like Kern’s studio, which has been operating for more than 50 years and makes or repurposes some 400 floats a year, or roughly a float a day, Kern said.

Mardi Gras season, which includes weeks of parades, fancy balls and parties leading up to Fat Tuesday, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to New Orleans each year, says Kelly Schulz, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. Schulz said a recent study conducted by Tulane University estimated the direct economic impact of Mardi Gras at roughly $144 million.

Some studies estimate the economic impact at more than $500 million, said Arthur Hardy, a Mardi Gras historian.

“There’s no way to know for sure because we don’t sell tickets,” Hardy said. “Mardi Gras started small, in private homes and private balls, and it’s evolved into this festival that some estimate produces more than a half-billion dollars a year.”

Attendance is also hard to gauge, but hotels are full, or close to it, for every Mardi Gras, Schultz said. “The city will be virtually sold out. Mardi Gras and music, especially on the international scene, are our big sells.”

In the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras, more than 100 parades roll through New Orleans and its suburbs. The big parading clubs, like Rex, Zulu, Bacchus, Endymion, Orpheus and Muses, hire Kern’s studio to build their floats. Smaller clubs make their own by decorating trailers with paint and crepe paper.

Hardy said more than 100,000 people ride in parades each year, and each rider can spend as much as $2,000 to $3,000 in fees, costumes and throws. Thousands more are spent on king cakes and the grand balls and parties, he said.

“It’s a money-maker for the city, but that’s not why we do it,” Hardy said. “We do it because we like to celebrate. It’s a free party we give ourselves and our guests.”

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