Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras- Jon Sumrall
New Orleans two week city wide bender was a couple of weeks ago and I thought I'd give you guys a British review/ opinion on it. Pretty much every day of the week for 2 weeks uptown NOLA and other areas are filled with float-ridden parades of different “Krewes”. The parades mostly went along the grand street of St Charles Avenue with the bigger more famous Krewes being nearer Pancake day. The parades dish out lots of beads and other items known as throws for people to catch. The floats were accompanied by tons of local highschool and university marching bands which gave the parades a party-like feel to them and was lovely seeing so many young kids getting involved.
Apart from the parades there was also a designated day for a “ Block party”, street party to us Brits. Where all the frats held passive parties, the only downside being that it could cost u up to 100 quid to get into, no party is worth 100 pounds even if you're loaded like most the people here. While the block party was fun it felt like being at a year 10 house party with people acting like they'd just been given a beer for the first time and I strongly believe 16 year old me could have drunk these people under the table. Imagine a street party full of 16year olds who have been left unattended with a bottle of vodka for the first time
One of the main parts of Mardi Gras for Tulane kids is “Tequila Sunrise” in which people try to stay up to the sunrise and then head to the Zulu parade at 8am. This was a monumental task for me as I love an early night however I slept from 9-3am and then headed out, while I survived making it all the way to Zulu I couldn't help feel that it was a bit underwhelming and I would have been better off having a semi decent night sleep and enjoying Zulu.
However, Mardi Gras was a great couple of weeks and it was great to be a part of the city's biggest party and it has contributed to my newfound love for frozen margs. The only downside of Mardi Gras was the sheer waste of plastic from all the throws as it is seen to be bad luck to pick throws off the ground but I would love to go back and experience the quintessential NOLA culture again.
