The Nightlife Blogger: Mardi Gras Without Parades Is Hard To Imagine

New Orleans Celebration Will Be Missing Its Key Element In 2021 Celebration

I did not plan on going to Mardi Gras in New Orleans next year.

Heck, with this COVID thing, I’m not sure where I’ll be going and what I will be doing in 2021.

Still, it’s a big blow to hear the New Orleans mayor has canceled all the Mardi Gras parades. I understand the reasoning, that the Feb. 16 date of Fat Tuesday with the parades to take place for the two weekends prior, is before a vaccine is likely readily available to everyone. That crowds would likely make it a “super spreader” of the coronavirus.

But it’s just hard to imagine Mardi Gras in New Orleans without its signature parades. This is what makes Mardi Gras in the Big Easy. Well. that and people flooding Bourbon Street and the French Quarter to drink big, colored cocktails as if they were on an assembly line. Which they pretty much are on Bourbon Street.

Yet is the parades that are the big attraction, and they are special to locals, who are as passionate about them as they are their beloved Saints. The krews, who organize the parades and all those famous floats, plan for them on a year-round basis.

Take those parades away from them, and that’s ripping the very heart and soul out of the people and the event. Having actually been in some of the parades, I can’t imagine the streets being silent and deserted, without people racing up to people on the floats to get beads.

And, as it was my experience, having girls bouncing up to members in the marching bands and putting beads around our necks, planting a big kiss on us and – as a nice parting gift – briefly exposing their breasts.

Er, pardon me there, I had a nice flashback and kind of left this column for a moment.

Anyway, while there will still be a party on Bourbon Street for Mardi Gras, the city won’t be the same without its parades.

Hopefully, that’s one of the few hangovers from this year that will last into 2021.