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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 14 February 2018

Mardi Gras: New Orleans throws big bash of parades, partying

By REBECCA SANTANA said they stay on the tra-
JANET McCONNAUGHEY ditional parade route, out-
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Tens side the French Quarter.
of thousands of revelers "Mardi Gras should be for
thronged Mardi Gras festivi- everyone from 8 months to
ties, many yelling "throw me 88 years old," Stephens said
something, Mister!" in the as crowds turned out in
universal call to float rid- temperatures warming to
ers who tossed them cov- the 70s (20s Celsius) in this
eted beads and trinkets on south Louisiana city aside
Tuesday's raucous finale to the Mississippi River.
Carnival season in New Or- By early Tuesday after-
leans. noon, the French Quarter's
The 300th anniversary of this most famous street, Bour-
Louisiana port city featured bon Street, and parallel
prominently in Fat Tuesday's Royal Street were crowd-
festivities as costumed tour- ed with costumed tourists
ists and locals alike packed and locals, many of them
parade routes under mostly stopping each other for
blue skies and balmy tem- photographs. One group
peratures. Merrymakers dressed as pink flamingos. The Krewe of Zulu marches as they roll on during Mardi Gras day in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb.
also jammed French Quar- Two men, both dressed as 13, 2018.
ter bars and narrow streets President Donald Trump, (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
to party with abandon. greeted each other in the and strolls to the Quarter Then comes the Zulu Social ican group that parades
New Orleans' oldest parad- crowd. from the Commander’s Aid and Pleasure Club, a in blackface and grass
ing Carnival group, Rex, Other costumes included Palace restaurant. historically African-Amer- skirts.q
celebrated the tricenten- Mr. and Mrs. Potato-Head,
nial with 21 of its 28 floats Pac Man and Mrs. Pac Man
commemorating the city's and an angel of death with
history starting with those black wings and halo.
who lived in the area be- The only bare chests seen
fore Europeans settled it in were men's, including a
1718 to the Battle of New group with grass skirts over
Orleans in 1815. Other floats their blue Jean shorts.
included one for St. Louis The holiday climaxes a
Cathedral, the descendant two-week Carnival sea-
of a church built the year of son, which draws about 1
the city's founding, and the million visitors and pumps
yellow fever, which killed about $840 million into the
more than 41,000 people city's economy, according
between 1815 and 1905. to the New Orleans Con-
Rex and Zulu are the two vention and Visitors Bureau.
major parades in New Or- It also means two weeks of
leans on Fat Tuesday, a 12-hour, no-vacation shifts
state holiday. And fami- for the city's police, who
lies jam the sidewalks and are reinforced by 165 state
camp out in the broad me- troopers and officers and
dians to watch with small deputies from half a dozen
children often perched in nearby areas.
wooden seats atop ladders Neighborhood organiza-
near the front. tions are among the first
Although many people groups out on Mardi Gras.
associate Mardi Gras There’s St. Anne’s parade,
with women flashing their an eclectic walking pa-
breasts for plastic bead rade and the North Side
necklaces, that bawdiness Skull and Bone Gang, which
occurs mostly in the French wakes people up and tells
Quarter, often from Bour- children to behave.
bon Street balconies. The Half-Fast Walking Club,
Neighbors Christine Ste- organized by the late clari-
phens and Tracy Thomas netist Pete Fountain, rolls