THE AMERICAN SOUTH

From Zulu to Rex, how to enjoy New Orleans' most celebrated Mardi Gras parades

Todd A. Price

If you did it right, by the time Mardi Gras arrives, you’re exhausted.

But in a good way — like how you’d feel, limbs heavy from motion, after running a race.

Carnival officially starts weeks — some years even months — before, on Jan. 6, or Kings’ Day. In the weeks before the concluding Tuesday arrives, the number of parades increase, until they finally roll from mid-morning until late night.

Mardi Gras day, though, begins and — for most of us — ends early. By 8 a.m., I need to be out on St. Charles Avenue, tracking down the meandering marching groups and admiring everyone’s costumes.

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Our family once managed to get costumes together, but that was back when our oldest son was young enough to be dressed in a dragon outfit without protest — and now he’s nearly a teenager. (That year I was a knight and my wife was a damsel.)

We stake out a spot for the parades amid the lawn chairs and barbecue grills that crowd the grass along the avenue.

A member of the Zulu parade walks along St. Charles Avenue on Mardi Gras day on Feb. 24, 2009, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Zulu, Rex headline Mardi Gras parades

The Zulu parade rolls first.

Put on by a local African-American social club, Zulu is regal and ragged, unruly and riotous, and pretty much the distillation of all that I love about Carnival.

Plus, Zulu hires bands from HBCUs, so the music can’t be beat.

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Rex, the king of Carnival, rolls by next.

That krewe, as Carnival parading groups are known, is made up of men with money and mansions. The identity of each year’s Rex is always revealed on the front page of the local paper.

It's the last big parade of the day, and its members would claim Rex is the culmination of Carnival.

But for me, Rex, with its lack of satire and stiff sense of frivolity, is A letdown after Zulu. We rarely make it until the end of Rex. My boys often give out before the last float rolls past.

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Members of the Krewe of Rex King of Carnival parade down St. Charles Avenue on Mardi Gras Day on March 5, 2019, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

As we walk back to the car, even a few blocks from the parade route the city is eerily deserted.

Everyone is at the parade or the few other pockets of action, like Frenchmen Street or wherever the Mardi Gras Indians, in technicolor feathered costumes, are wandering.

Nearly every business is closed. The city is peaceful.

Where to find parades, Mardi Gras Indians 

Starting the Wednesday before Mardi Gras, parades roll in New Orleans every night and, once Saturday arrives, during the day as well. Most parades start Uptown on either Jefferson or Napoleon avenues and end near the French Quarter.

I prefer watching the parades on Magazine Street before they reach Napoleon Avenue. Not all parades start that far Uptown, so you'll miss a few. But you will also avoid the largest crowds.

A young Mardi Gras Indian, a tradition that dates back to slavery, wears an intricate hand-made costume on Mardi Gras Day on Feb. 21, 2012, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

For a complete parade schedule with route map, visit www.mardigrasneworleans.com/parades.

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On Monday, the day before Fat Tuesday, the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure club hosts a free Lundi Gras festival at the riverfront with music and food. This year's king and queen of Zulu make an official appearance at the Lundi Gras Festival.

See www.lundigrasfestival.com for more information.

Both Rex and Zulu take a different route through the city than most parades. You will need to catch those parades farther Uptown (in other words, closer to the CBD and French Quarter).

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My preferred spot is in front of The Avenue Pub, 1732 St. Charles Ave., which has the best beer selection in town.

The Mardi Gras Indians follow no set path, as tribes walk about and challenge each other to see who has the prettiest costumes. Finding them requires luck.

The downtown Mardi Gras Indians often pass by Treme's Backstreet Cultural Museum, 1116 Henriette Delille St.