What an amazing debut for a new Halloween Krewe for ’08 New Orleans.
Imagined, created and organized by Blaine Kerne, the creator of the famous Mardi Gras floats, the parade of 16 Krewe of Boo floats, a few of them featured here, as only pictures can truly communicate the reality(?), came past our flat on N. Peters St. to the howling approval of thousands of partygoers.
Everybody came out to see the spectacle - people of all ages, colors, and persuasions… Forget the economy and the politics, this is Halloween!
It was an awesome Mardi Gras-style Parade - huge floats, marching bands, dancing girls, trotting horses - moving past an enormous, festive crowd.
Thousands of people came down to the Quarter to see it, most dressed, or undressed, in every imaginable costume.
Everybody was there: Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Hilary Clinton, the Duchess of Devonshire - all walking along congenially with assorted witches, ghouls and cartoon characters; everything you can imagine (and much you couldn’t possibly unless you were there…).
Despite many hours out on the streets, we never managed to find our ghostly friends who we were supposed to meet, but did manage to connect up with some new ones. Everyone is your friend at the Parade. And yes, the joyful shrieking reached a fever pitch when a sudden shout went out, “Here comes the Queen!” And now it was all hailing the Queen! The Queen! And from high up on the Queen’s Float, her entourage showered us with beads and plastic glasses.
And still more floats and dancing girls came…
It was still early in the evening when the Krewe of Boo finished winding past us, but the famous, and so much more irreverent, traditional street parade was just getting started up at Molly’s on Decatur St. And after that riotous, outrageous display, the crowd, which seemed to just surge bigger as the night went on, began heading to parties, bars, music venues, and/or just meander amidst the huge party out on the streets.
We took the camera and collected beads back to the flat after the parades - but turned right around and plunged back into the madness out there, not getting to sleep until after 4am (and even then the streets still teamed with the hard-core hedonists).
It was a night for leaving everything behind; for replacing your actual identity with your imagination and then living it - being as goofy and silly as you want to be! Everyone was smiling, laughing and enjoying themselves, and so it was mostly good clean(?) fun. There was only one stabbing on Bourbon St. - well after 3am - when the kiddies were safely in bed.
Happily, we woke up this morning to find the front door of our apartment building still intact.
Take a look at the picture!
Last year, a couple of drunks smashed it to pieces at about 4am. We know the time when it happened, because a reveler recorded the culprits on his cell-phone. However, as he had imbibed a few too many adult beverages, he went home and forgot all about it, until a few days later when he looked at his phone. It took us weeks to get that door fixed. So much of this town reminds us of Costa Rica…
