This is the second in a series on Mardi Gras 2013 in New Orleans. The first major parade of the New Orleans carnival season is Krewe du Vieux.
The theme for 2013 was Krewe du Vieux Comes Early! There web site proclaims, “The Krewe du Vieux is a non-profit organization dedicated to the historical and traditional concept of a Mardi Gras parade as a venue for individual creative expression and satirical comment.
It is unique among all Mardi Gras parades in the city because it alone carries on the old traditions of Carnival celebrations, by using decorated mule-drawn floats with satirical themes, accompanied by costumed revelers dancing in the streets to the sounds of jazzy street musicians.” The Krewe du Vieux was founded in 1987 from the ashes of the storied Krewe of Clones.
Satire is the key theme here. Much of it is very sexually explicit. I will not display the more extreme floats on that topic here but know that they were great. There was also a lot of satire against the local paper, the Times Picayune, for dropping to three days a week, the NFL andRoger Goodell for penalizing the New Orleans Saints, and Governor Bobby Jindal for being a general jerk working to destroy the education system, among other things. It is also the only major parade to go through the Marigny and the French Quarter.
