News and information from the New Orleans area
Posts tagged Bourbon Street
LONGEST PARADE DAY IN MANY YEARS BEGINS!!
014 years
I’m hosted by icorp.net, and they have an historic Mardi Gras site at carnivalneworleans.com, and have an old web cam in the French Quarter:
Web cam on Bourbon St. located at Tropical Isle!!
5:22 & Bacchus is nowhere in sight. WDSU’s Parade tracker is still messaging me about Thoth. Time flies when you have 5 parades in a row, including two very very large Super Krewes ending up the whole shebang! 5:36, Bacchus is rolling, according to WDSU-TV’s parade tracker service.
Endymion gave up its beloved Canal Boulevard route for the traditional St. Charles Avenue. They will follow Bacchus for a very long day of parading, starting with Okeanos, Mid-City, & Thoth! Thoth runs a long route, and takes over 3 hours to run. If Bacchus starts roughly at 3 pm, Endymion can begin at Bacchus’ old time of 5 pm. Then the night wouldn’t run by very much, if things go smoothly, which they probably won’t. Without being unduly pessimistic, the parading night with probably run into the wee wee hours of the night!!
This is the 2nd time since Katrina (2005) that Endymion has changed routes and it’s not very popular with the legions of Mid City Endymion fans that LOVE the 1 major parade that doesn’t go down St. Charles Avenue! Plus, a ton of businesses count on the Endymion business boost their business through the roof temporarily.
Okeanos has begun, as has Mid-City. Thoth will follow, then Bacchus and Endymion. The longest parade day in recent history is underway!
Endymion
Elijah Wood as Bacchus
Bacchasaurus
Endymion is arguably the largest krewe in the whole New Orleans Mardi Gras, and to roll last after Okeanos, Mid-City, Thoth, then Bacchus before starting must have been quite a blow of weather reality to swallow. As it’s pouring at 1:30 pm a few hours before Endymion was supposed to roll, it looks like the move to skip a day was wise. Only tomorrow will tell, but from today’s downpour, it looks wise indeed.
Spring Break & Mardi Gras Overlap!!
014 years
Spring Break Crowd
I love posting cheesy beach pictures! Had no cause to do it before, but now I’ve got plenty!!
Alexa V. Staden and her fiance had just one thought when it came to spring break this year: Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
New Orleans tourism officials, who have begun an advertising campaign to attract younger visitors, believe the happy convergence will give them a boost over Mardi Gras 2010, the biggest since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
“We figured it was now or never,” said Von Staden, who recently completed her master’s at the University of Florida. “Because Mardi Gras is so late this year that it matches up with spring break. Who knows when that will happen again?”
Spring Break in Panama City Beach, FL
Mardi Gras is March 8. The next time it will be this late is in 2038, when it falls on March 9. New Orleans tourism officials, who have begun an advertising campaign to attract younger visitors, believe the happy convergence will give them a boost over Mardi Gras 2010, which was the biggest since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. A study done for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau said the city was not getting its share of 18- to 34-year-old visitors, despite its reputation as a party town.
New advertising campaigns are being geared to that demographic, said bureau spokeswoman Kelly Schulz. “I was kind of surprised by it,” Schulz said. “We are family friendly, but we also think people should see more of our night life.” The campaign, with the theme “New Orleans, you’re different here,” puts further emphasis on the city’s food, music and night life.
At Mardi Gras, the party takes to the streets, packing the parade routes in many areas, and turning Bourbon Street into a raucous, X-rated celebration for the young and free-spirited. Certainly those in the hospitality business are expecting a nice bump, even above last Mardi Gras when the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl victory was helping to draw people to the city.
“This year we are about 30 to 35 percent ahead of the pace compared to last year and we had a very good year last year,” said Gil Zanchi, general manager for the New Orleans Marriott and the five other Marriott hotels in the city.
Spring Break will have to bring lots of visitors to equal last year. 2010 was an extraordinary Mardi Gras as the Saints won their first NFC Championship and very first Super Bowl during those last weeks of Carnival 2010. Those 2 wins packed the French Quarter almost as much as Mardi Gras does.
Students looking for spring break adventures can’t be credited for all the boost in room bookings, said Diana K. Schwam, who wrote the “Frommer’s New Orleans” guide book.
Incident at Canal and Bourbon Streets
016 years
by NewOrleansMusicMan
in Mardi Gras
During the parade season in the New Orleans metro area, it is not uncommon for three parades to roll on weeknights, and ten or more each weekend, with the processions often taking place simultaneously in different areas of the city. Do parades ever occur a the same time, in the same place? It doesn’t sound possible, but…
Once, in 1890, two krewes tried to parade in the same place and time. The incident is well known to Carnival historians, yet very few 2009 parade goers have heard the tale.
The year is 1886, and Comus the first of all krewes to parade in 1857, ceases parading due to financial difficulties. Proteus assumes the Mardi Gras night date and keeps it, in Comus absence, for five years.
Comus decides to resume parading for the 1890 season, with a return to their old night planned. They send a letter to the Mayor of New Orleans, Joseph Shakespeare, informing Proteus of their desire to share Mardi Gras night, with Proteus preceding them. Proteus sends a reply back to the mayor consenting. An agreement having been reached, no trouble was expected, even though the letters exchanged through Mayor Shakespeare were rich in mutual disrespect.
Fate seemed to be against both krewes, as neither parade rolled smoothly. As luck would have had it, the two processions headed for the intersection of Bourbon and Canal Streets at the same time. Led by their Captains on horseback, they met as Proteus turned from Canal onto Bourbon. The Captains circled each other angrily, holding their riding crops menacinglyh high, shouting back and forth. The processions stopped abruptly, and even though the Captains were friends for many years, a fight seemed eminent.
Out of nowhere, a masked man moved quickly from the parade crowd, gripped the bridle of the Proteus Captain’s mount and moved him away, separating the antagonists. This person was the brother of the Comus Captain and a member of both krewes. He had placed himself at a strategic spot on the route, and his solitary actions prevented an ugly Mardi Gras event from taking place. As Carnival tradition has it, the mediator was charged with parade interference and arrested, but was freed in time for the Comus Ball.
*Thanks to Charles “Pie” Dufour and the Krewe of Proteus*