Arthur
Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide contains 164 colorful
pages of facts, photos, features, and fun, including more
than 50 individual parade profiles and maps. The award-winning
magazine includes a history of the event; answers to the
25 most frequently asked questions; an illustrated glossary
of Mardi Gras terms; and articles on New Orleans personalities,
traditions and happenings. For more than three decades,
the city's top writers and photographers have worked together
to create a publication that has achieved genuine collectible
status. With more than two million copies sold, Arthur
Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide is recognized as the
program to the event.
Mardi
Gras 2013 is February 12, 2013!
To
order current or back issues, visit
our online store.
DID YOU KNOW?
Posted: September 25, 2012
The official 2013 Mardi Gras Parade schedule starts four months from today, thanks to the Super Bowl moving most first weekend parades back one week closer to Christmas. However, visitors and locals will still be able to enjoy Mardi Gras on the traditional first weekend of the parade season.
FAMILY GRAS in Metairie will take place on February 1 and 2, with the parades of ATLAS and EXCALIBUR rolling on Friday. Jefferson Parish’s largest parade, CAESAR will roll on its usual Saturday night, while Nemesis rolls at 1PM in St. Bernard. And the Krewe of ALLA, the West Bank’s oldest and biggest parade, has moved its procession up eight days and will roll on Saturday, February 2 at noon, but will not travel through Algiers. With CHOCTAW and CLEOPATRA moving to the uptown route, the West Bank is left with four parades-NOMTOC, ALLA, ADONIS, and the Krewe of GRELA, which returns on Fat Tuesday after a year's absence.
Look for route changes for about eight uptown parades in 2013.
According to float builder Barry Kern, the new Krewe of FRERET plans to address the Mayor's Mardi Gras Advisory Committee on October 18, seeking the group's endorsement for a parade, which it hopes will be added to the 2013 parade calendar. The NOPD and the New Orleans City Council have the final say-so.
The new female Krewe of HERA is flying beneath the radar but will parade in front of Zeus on Lundi Gras in Metairie.
Look for a handsome new book to debut next month, A Mighty River Bends for a King: The History of the Krewe of Alla-1932-2012. Ordering information will soon be posted at www.kreweofalla.net.
Will the standard Metairie parade route feature a major change next year?
Will a new super-float debut in 2013?
Stay tuned!
SIX MONTHS BEFORE FAT TUESDAY
Posted: August 12, 2012
WEST BANK MARDI GRAS
So important is the Algiers parade route to the Krewe of NOMTOC, that the club has produced banners assuring residents that the club will return to its West Bank route in 2013. Last year rain forced them to parade on the Uptown route. NOMTOC just completed its 5th annual "Back to School" event in which 500 children were presented with bags of school supplies. The group deserves a lot of credit for its year-round community involvement.
Meanwhile, because of the Super Bowl, the Krewe of CHOCTAW will parade on the east bank behind PONTCHARTRAIN for 2013 only.
While krewe officials remain silent, many insiders claim the Krewe of CLEOPATRA will ask the New Orleans City Council for permission to move from the West Bank and allow them to parade behind the Krewe of OSHUN parade on the Uptown route in 2013. One of the reasons for the possible move is the proposed new Jefferson Parish standardized West Bank parade route, which will extend into the City of Gretna. Krewe officials fear that the longer route will cause them to lose marching bands. The solution of abandoning the Algiers portion of the route is not acceptable to some. Meanwhile, the city of Gretna, which cancelled all Mardi Gras activities in 2012, now welcomes back the Fat Tuesday parade of the Krewe of GRELA, which will receive $40,000 from the parish to help underwrite its parade. Some Mardi Gras veterans question the propriety of government funds being used to prop-up private Carnival organizations.
SLIDELL MARDI GRAS
St. Tammany Parish parades in Slidell feared they would be accessed 75% of the city's costs to put on parades during the 2013 Carnival season, but Slidell's city government now plans to charge Mardi Gras organizations a flat fee for parade permits. According to the Times-Picayune, "The walking parades of KREWE DE PAWS and MONA LISA & MOONPIE in Olde Towne will each pay $500 for their permits; the day parades of Krewe of SLIDELLIANS, Krewe of CLAUDE, Krewe of PERSEUS, and Krewe of DIONYSUS will each pay $2,000; and the night parades of Mystic Krewe of TITANS and Krewe of SELENE will pay $4,000, according to a document Slidell Public Works Director Mike Noto provided to club representatives." By comparison, all New Orleans parades pay a $750 parade permit.
GENERAL NEWS
* A small group of Bacchus members who object to a dues increase of $300 to fund a new den have sued the krewe's leaders, demanding that the club's financial records be open to inspection. A Facebook blog, SAVE THE KREWE OF BACCHUS has seen quite a bit of activity and has claimed that the captain will supply the records on August 20.
* The Krewe of PYGMALION, which unveiled its Pygmammoth float in 2012, reports that it will add another signature float in 2013-the animated, fiber-optically lit Jester float, which will follow the king's float.
* Parading krewes displaced by the Super Bowl have reported logistical problems booking hotel rooms for functions and for their out-of-town riders.
*The KREWE DU VIEUX tentatively plans to parade on January 19, 2013.
* Construction on Napoleon Avenue will likely affect the parades of REX, IRIS, and CARROLLTON. The New Orleans truck parades of ELKS and CRESCENT CITY may need a new formation area, thanks to construction on Claiborne Avenue near the Jefferson Parish line.
* The Knights of BABYLON and LE KREWE D'ETAT will end their 2013 parades in front of the Marriot Hotel.
* Though their website is painfully absent significant details, the new female Krewe of HERA appears on the official Jefferson Parish parade calendar as rolling on Lundi Gras evening in Metairie. The club is not affiliated with the New Orleans Carnival krewe that bore the same name and was founded in 1949.
* According to their website, plans are underway to "Revitalize the Krewe of FRERET's Spot" on the Carnival Calendar. It's been almost 20 years since the Krewe of Freret last rode through the neighborhood. But thanks to a fledgling group of young men taking cues from the Uptown corridor's commercial revitalization, a new parade may once again roll behind a banner bearing that name. The majority of the new members are in their 20's and 30's and have some kind of a tie with Loyola or Tulane and their storied watering holes, and others are neighborhood business owners. The upstart group was able to pick up the original Krewe's LLC from the state, and a few descendants of the old Krewe have signed on as well."
Mardi Gras News
Posted: May 24, 2012
Happy birthday to BLAINE KERN, who celebrated his 85th birthday last week.
The tentative 2013 parade calendar released by Jefferson Parish shows a new entry for Lundi Gras evening, the female KREWE OF HERA set to parade before Zeus at 6:30 PM in Metairie. In spite of the Superbowl on Sunday, February 5, FAMILY GRAS will take place on Friday and Saturday, February 3 and 4.
Last week Jefferson Parish announced fines against several krewes for violating parade ordinances, (mostly for not wearing masks). It remains to be seen if these actions will improve the parades in Metairie, which have largely decreased in quantity and quality the past ten years. New regulations that will require all parades to include 10 marching bands by 2019 will be difficult for parades to meet, while other new regulations (and enforcement) seem reasonable.
The Gretna based KREWE OF GRELA is attempting a comeback on the westbank in 2013, hoping to parade in Gretna and in unincorporated Jefferson Parish. Stay tuned.
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