Mardi Gras 2020 in New Orleans: Parades, WWLTV live coverage

[Donkees]

[spicysista]

1. Do whatcha wanna!

I must pay homage to my favorite college band of all time. The human jukebox in all its glory.....

Happy Mardi Gras, everyone!

[not_the_one]

2. Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!

Mardi Gras is a lot of things! MOSTLY ADULT in nature. If you are a prude, don't go. And although I have seen many parents with children in tow, it is NOT a celebration for children, unless you are outside the quarter. The best place to enjoy it is, of course, in the French Quarter.

But the parades are so large they can't go into the quarter (there may be a few small ones, Krewe of Barkus is one - for the dogs... ), so Canal Street and St. Charles Avenue is the place to be for the parades. Canal Street is HUGE, and can hold a LOT of people.

Prepare to act like a child and/or idiot. Worthless trinkets and beads will become your fool's gold.

But a fair warning... YOU WILL NEVER ENJOY ANOTHER PARADE like a Mardi Gras parade. You will be spoiled.They are participatory. You GET INVOLVED. You have to leap to get the beads, so in the process you push, you shove, all in good fun (there is almost always enough goodies to go around, so everybody gets some). You will step on old ladies and small children to get your beads!!! (JUST KIDDING!!!) You leave tired!

There are 60 parades the two weeks prior to Fat Tuesday, in and around the quarter. The big parades that take place the week before, especially the weekend before Fat Tuesday are the biggest and best. Canal Street is a great place to realize the intensity of the crowds and see the floats. The floats are getting better and better. The smaller parades may take place in their entirety elsewhere in the city. But the good ones all end up on Canal Street, bordering the quarter.

Many of the parades are back to back, literally. Behind the last float of one parade can be the first float of the next parade. They can last for HOURS!

Sometimes there are slow spots, but with parades those size, that is a given.

I can honestly say the next best parades I have ever attended are the Pride parades in Manhattan. For numbers of people, they dwarf Mardi Gras. Their (our) enthusiasm matches Mardi Gras parades, but you just stand, watch, applaud, yell, scream. But they aren't participatory like Mardi Gras parades.

I lived in the Quarter for over three years, and went to many Mardi Gras's before moving there. Been back to two, since I left.

Believe me, NOTHING compares to a Mardi Gras parade.

YMMV