Let’s party: Mardi Gras marks tricentennial
Fat Tuesday festivities close Carnival season
NEW ORLEANS — Families camped out from early morning to catch beads and stuffed animals thrown from float riders. Revelers took to the streets in elaborate or funny costumes evoking Marie Antoinette, President Donald Trump and glamorous vampires. And amused bystanders took in the chaotic scene from lawn chairs.
Carnival season started Jan. 6 and came to a close on Fat Tuesday with festivities throughout New Orleans.
Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, a period of reflection and restraint after the days of parades, parties and revelry.
Throngs of people were on the median for the final day of Mardi Gras, cooking up crawfish and red beans and rice. Others had set up ladders for their kids to sit on and catch beads and throws from the passing Zulu parade, one of two main parades that take to the streets on Fat Tuesday.
The 300th anniversary of New Orleans featured prominently in the Rex parade. Rex, which is the city’s oldest parading group, decorated 21 of their 28 floats with images of the city’s history.
Costumes are a huge part of the Mardi Gras celebrations in the French Quarter, and Tuesday’s designs did not disappoint.
The French Quarter’s most famous street, Bourbon Street, and parallel Royal Street were crowded with costumed tourists and locals, many of them stopping each other for photographs.
Shannon Abraham from Reno, Nevada, said she spent dozens of hours designing and making her elaborate silver-sequined dress. She wore a big silver wig of curls piled on top of curls and a pair of silver fangs to complete her look as a “Glampire Extraordinaire.”
“We love New Orleans. There’s no place else in the world like it,” she said. Speaking of the people dressed up in the French Quarter, she said: “The effort that they’ve poured into this celebration and their costumes is extraordinary. And I like to be part of that. I like to contribute.”
Two shootings near the traditional Mardi Gras parade route left three people wounded, New Orleans Police said. The first shooting happened about 3:15 p.m. Deputy Superintendent Paul Noel said one man was shot in the head and is in critical condition. Another, a juvenile boy, was shot in the leg and is in stable condition.
Police Chief Michael Harrison said a second shooting happened during a fight that broke out. A man who police believe was shot twice was rushed to the hospital. His condition is unknown.