Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide

Endymion to return to its Mid-City route
Posted: October 26, 2006

The Mardi Gras Guide has learned that the NOPD will allow the Krewe of Endymion to return to its Mid-City route in 2007. As part of a plan to further revitalize the neighborhood, and to make it easier for the police to handle the parades scheduled for Saturday, February 17, the Krewes of Iris and Tucks have been asked to precede Endymion on the Mid-City route. This request has not sat well with the captains of these two organizations which have always considered uptown their home. The City Council has the final say so on the matter of parade routes.

Endymion officials have made it known that they would prefer to return to Mid City, but would parade on the uptown route again if asked to by the City. In 2002 Endymion rolled uptown because of construction of the Canal Streetcar line. In 2006 in the aftermath of Katrina, the 2,200 member club voluntarily paraded from Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas.

Fat Tuesday is four months from today.
Posted: October 20, 2006

So what's happening in the world of Carnival? Plenty.

* Expect an announcement within the next two weeks about the corporate sponsorship of Mardi Gras 2007. Media Buys -- the Los Angeles company that was hired on a commission basis to sell the sponsorships--reports a great deal of interest in the various packages and levels of participation being offered. Details will be made public soon. Funds will go to offset the city's costs in presenting Carnival.

* The Orleans Parish parade calendar is finally taking shape, with an announcement this week by the City to the krewe captains that pre-Katrina standards will be in place for 2007; meaning a minimum of 14 floats and 7 bands in each parade.

* Parade permit applications are normally extended to the krewes on July 15 and returned to the City by August 15. This year's applications will be forwarded to the clubs by November 1.

* Parades will roll in their original "Pre-K" slots, with these exceptions so far: Druids will parade on Wednesday and Morpheus on Friday. Both krewes asked for these changes which give the NOPD Monday and Tuesday nights off.

* It is expected that Cleopatra, Pygmalion and Oshun will open the season on Friday, February 9.

* Saturn and Aladdin will not parade; Bards hopes to parade, but the Mayor's Mardi Gras Coordinating Committee voted to not allow their return. The final decision rests with the New Orleans City Council. A new Krewe of Bes wants to parade on the Westbank in 2007.

* Returning to their original parade routes are Thoth, Rex and Zulu. Endymion's route has not been finalized.

* Alla plans a mini-parade on January 6 as part of its 75th anniversary. "Mr. Mardi Gras" Blaine Kern has announced this will be his last year as Captain of the Algiers-based club.

* The City has proposed a hike in 2007 parade permit fees from $750 per parade to $100 per float. Krewe captains objected, but agreed to discuss the matter for the 2008 season.

* The biggest issue to affect parading krewes in 2007 will be the high cost and limited availability of insurance.

* The Municipal Auditorium and the Fairmont Hotel will not be available for Carnival balls.

* In 2007 Endymion returns its Extravaganza to the Louisiana Superdome.

* Longtime and much-respected Mardi Gras guru Henry Trapani has replaced Mike Yenni as parade coordinator in Jefferson Parish. Yenni took a post with Kenner Mayor Ed Muniz.

* In Jefferson Parish, relaxed "Katrina standards" will be in effect for one more year, meaning that smaller parades will not be penalized.

* The popular “Twilight on Twelfth Night” Carnival kickoff celebration held each year at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner and sponsored by the Friends of Rivertown will not be held in 2007.

* Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard will soon announce plans for "Family Gras," a series of family oriented activities held on the first weekend
of the parade season.

* As part of the 50th anniversary of Zeus (and of Mardi Gras parades in Metairie) the club will present a special parade on Twelfth Night, on its original Metairie Road parade route. And of course its regular parade will take place on Lundi Gras.

* In St. Bernard Parish, Gladiators, Arabi and Aphrodite will not parade. It is expected that Nemesis will.

* Float builder, ball designer, and Carnival historian Henri Schindler has just released the fourth is his series of coffee table books, Mardi Gras Treasures-Jewelry of the Golden Age. The beautifully illustrated volume features hundreds of photographs.

* Mardi Gras photographer Mitch Osborne will not be publishing his annual Carnival calendar in 2007, but hopes to issue one for 2008.

* On Sunday, October 21, "Carnival!" opens at NOMA. The multimedia exhibition examines Carnival in eight cities, including Laza, Spain; Venice, Italy, Basel, Switzerland; Recife and Olinda, Brazil; Tlaxcala, Mexico; Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; and New Orleans. Works from noted local photographer Syndey Byrd will be prominently featured.

MARDI GRAS 2007 PREVIEW
Posted: August 20, 2006

With Fat Tuesday six months from today, what can visitors and locals anticipate from Mardi Gras 2007? Certainly the city will be better-populated, with more hotels, restaurants and flights into New Orleans available.

We may see limited corporate sponsorship of Mardi Gras (but not of the parades). MediaBuys, the company the city hired on a commission basis to sell corporate sponsorships of Mardi Gras, appears well on its way to landing big clients that want to brand themselves with New Orleans’ most famous celebration. Funds would go to off-set the city’s costs in presenting Carnival.

It is hoped that the newly-elected City Council will be friendly to Mardi Gras. Many questions remain, however.

Parade permit applications are normally extended to the krewes on July 15 and returned to the City by August 15. This process has not yet begun. Orleans Parish parading krewe captains will meet this week to discuss their needs and concerns. Among their unanswered questions are these:

* Will the schedule return to 11 days of parades or will it be limited to eight days with a series of piggy-back parades?

* Which of the seven canceled New Orleans krewes will reappear?

* Will the 14-float and 7-band minimum requirements for parades be reinstated?

* Will maximum numbers be placed on bands and ancillary units as was done in 2006?

* Will Endymion, Thoth, Zulu, Rex, Alla, Aladdin and Iris return to their traditional parade routes?

* Will rain-out dates be reinstated?

* Will the krewes of Saturn and Bards lose their permits since their failures to parade in 2006 were not caused by Katrina?

* Will the Zulu Coronation Ball return to the Convention Center and will Endymion return the Extravaganza to the SuperDome?

* Will funds be available to reinstall the city's reviewing stands at Lee Circle, return the Lafayette Square reviewing stands to full-size, replace barricades lost to Katrina, and set up port-a-lets and trash receptacles along parade routes?

Here are some things that we do know:

* The biggest issue to affect parading krewes in 2007 will be the high cost and limited availability of insurance.

* The Municipal Auditorium will not be available for Carnival balls.

* In Jefferson Parish it is likely that the reduced standards for
parades in 2006 will remain in place for one more year.

* Long-time and much respected Mardi Gras guru Henry Trapani will temporarily replace Mike Yenni as parade coordinator in Jefferson Parish. Yenni took a post with Kenner Mayor Ed Muniz.

* The popular “Twilight on Twelfth Night” Carnival kick-off celebration held each year at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner and sponsored by the Friends of Rivertown will not be held in 2007.

* Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard will soon announce plans for "Family Gras," a series of family-oriented activities held on the first weekend of the parade season.

Commentary
Posted: March 10, 2006

Congratulations, New Orleans. We won. Not that there was ever any serious doubt. In the Big Easy, we seldom take the easy way out. We knew that we would make Mardi Gras happen and that it would be terrific-just the kind of group therapy we needed when we chose to celebrate rather than surrender. Mardi Gras, especially this year, was for us; a time to enjoy our unique and diverse cultural heritage. The bare-breasted spring break crowd stayed away and families came out in record numbers. To a nation that still thinks parts of New Orleans are under water, we replaced images of refugees in boats with revelers on floats.
In the end, most of the national and international media got it.

But it was a battle as they repeated ad nauseam the same old misguided story line that we were insensitive to stage Mardi Gras and that it would cost the city money better spent on housing. Never mind that the celebration will actually help fund the recovery. Most reporters ignored what the latest numbers indicate: Mardi Gras normally generates more than one billion dollars in total revenue. The city spends less than $5 million on services and receives more than $21 million in taxes.
A canceled Carnival would have announced that New Orleans was closed for business. Some hotels might not have survived. The additional flights into New Orleans, driven wholly by the demand created by Mardi Gras, would not have been scheduled. Harrah's, Canal Place and the Morial Convention Center would not have reopened when they did?all on the first day of parades. Conventions and leisure travelers considering New Orleans would have had second thoughts if we had failed to present our signature event in the very year it was celebrating its 150th anniversary.

City government always has the power to cancel the parades, but it does not make them happen. The citizens, the parade-riding krewe members and their leaders, made Mardi Gras happen. They knew how essential it was that Mardi Gras go on. Sacrifices were made: seven krewes chose not to parade; some Carnival balls were canceled or changed venues; some royalty were held over to 2007; many parades were smaller; all traveled a shorter, more standardized route; and we enjoyed eight days of parades instead of eleven. The police did their usual masterful job.

The parading people of New Orleans did not forget Katrina.

Unprecedented philanthropic activity accompanied Carnival, from the volunteer cleanup Katrina Krewe to the donations made by the clubs themselves-$370,000 from Muses, Bacchus, Rex and Chaos, plus donations from many other clubs not yet made public. The charter school initiative started by Rex will benefit school children for years to come.

Official and unofficial acts of compassion were to be found everywhere: Zulu's memorial service for victims of the storm, including ten of its members who died; the moment of silence offered by Rex at Gallier Hall; the many floats that carried first responders and other heroes of the storm; the outpouring of charity as more fortunate krewe members helped finance the rides of their displaced colleagues. But, in the true spirit of Mardi Gras, we also remembered to laugh at ourselves with satirical themes, floats and costumed maskers that poked fun at mother nature, FEMA and our favorite targets-politicians.

Some will measure the success of Mardi Gras 2006 by the number of hotel rooms that were booked, by the full flights into Louis Armstrong International Airport, by crowd size. I choose to measure it by the joy that was spread. That, after all, is the true purpose of the celebration. And everywhere I looked, I saw joy. On the faces of young and old, black and white. I saw unity as Zulu and Rex hugged on Lundi Gras and as the mayor and governor stood side-by-side at Gallier Hall on Fat Tuesday.
It's too early to make predictions for Mardi Gras 2007. Will the canceled krewes reappear? Will minimum requirements for parades be reinstated? Will public school marching bands return? Will the NOPD again piggyback parades rather than stage them over several days? And what about parade routes? Or corporate sponsorship?

We have time to sort it out. Meanwhile, let's enjoy the memory of this most significant Carnival season.