Mardi Gras – New Orleans

What: The ‘Great­est free show on Earth’, Mar­di Gras or Fat Tues­day is the free sin­gle day cli­max of a six-week long fes­ti­val in New Orleans, where some two mil­lion peo­ple gath­er to cel­e­brate in the streets of New Orleans for a fam­i­ly friend­ly event to enjoy parades (Mar­di Paws), cos­tumes, floats, con­certs and for those of drink­ing age, alco­hol, par­ties  and a grand “Meet­ing of the Courts” finale masked ball that rings in Ash Wednes­day. 

Although cel­e­brat­ed glob­al­ly, New Orleans is tru­ly the place to be for Mar­di Gras, with the cel­e­bra­tions, which can be traced back to the 1600’s, kick­ing into gear in the two weeks pre­ced­ing Fat Tues­day, when the first of the parades and the famous Jazz pro­ces­sions will march through the streets of New Orleans down­town to a dif­fer­ent dai­ly theme, and of course throw out the famous Mar­di Gras Beads (no flash­ing required), toys and gifts to the watch­ing rev­ellers — with each parade and the street par­ties get­ting big­ger and bet­ter in the lead up to Fat Tues­day.

When: The Car­ni­val sea­son offi­cial­ly starts on the 6^th of Jan­u­ary, but it’s rec­om­mend­ed to attend at in the two weeks before the main day of Fat Tues­day – which falls on the Tues­day before Ash Wednes­day which can vary between late Feb­ru­ary or ear­ly March – to enjoy the build-up and the parades before the main day of Mar­di Gras and the street par­ties and parades of Mar­di Pews.

Where:  The main fes­ti­val and best parade takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana, with the Uptown New Orleans, bour­bon street areas host­ing many of the parades and Mar­di Gras events, with the St Charles Avenue and CBD being the main route for the parades, note that while the French quar­ter is a pop­u­lar area for street par­ties – you won’t see the parades head down there owing to the nar­row streets.

Tick­ets:  Mar­di Gras is a com­plete­ly free event and held in pub­lic space (so ignore any­one claim­ing to sell tick­ets) – although for those who want a pre­mi­um view of the parade route apart­ments and hotels look­ing out over the CBD dra­mat­i­cal­ly increase in price dur­ing the fes­ti­val.

Dura­tion: Mar­di Gras begins on the 6^th Jan­u­ary and can run into the start of March depend­ing on the date of Ash Wednes­day, for the tim­ings of parades you can expect a detailed sched­ule to be released a few weeks before Fat Tues­day – but it’s not uncom­mon to see par­ties and Jazz bands kick­ing up from dawn to dusk each day and the parades to begin in mid after­noon in the CBD in the two weeks lead­ing up to the fes­ti­val.

One thing to be wary of though is that at the stroke of mid­night on Fat Tues­day, the par­ties and parades will come to a sud­den stop, to allow for clean ups to begin, with this being strict­ly enforced and heavy fines dished out for those who seek to break this rule.

Need to Know:  Mar­di Gras can either be a fam­i­ly friend­ly social fes­ti­val or a place to let your wild side out depend­ing on your pref­er­ence – either way make sure you keep your belong­ings safe and act in a social­ly respon­si­ble man­ner – as pick­pock­ets and crim­i­nals are known to roam New Orle­and streets dur­ing Mar­di Gras.  

More Infor­ma­tion: For infor­ma­tion on the parade themes, start times and for an FAQ on Mar­di Gras vis­it the offi­cial Mar­di Gras New Orleans web­site  at [https://www.mardigrasneworleans.com]