|
Ed's Ultimate Fat Tuesday Walking Tour
Everyone has their own idea of what to do on Carnival Day. Some folks have established, time-honored traditions to see to, while others just wing it and let the day bring what it may. Then there's what I call the "Grand Tour," where one tries to do cover as many bases as possible. The Grand Tour officially begins around 5:00am, with a breakfast of King Cake, coffee, etc. Depending on where you are, you should plan your departure so that you arrive around Napoleon and St. Charles Avenues around 6:00am. Your strategy is quite simple: You'll start from this point and move down St. Charles towards Canal Street, then into the Quarter. It's a long haul, but that's why this is called the Grand Tour.
Here's the itinerary:
6:00 - 7:30am
Hang out on St. Charles in between Napoleon and Louisiana. If you need something more for breakfast, there's a McDonald's just past Louisiana towards Canal. Look for the Channel 4 remote site. Frank ("Naturally N'awlins") Davis is out here. If you're in costume, you're likely to get on TV. There won't be tons of activity at this time of the morning, but things start happening as people arrive to relieve the "ladder watchers" who have been out since before daybreak, saving the spots on the neutral ground where ladders will be placed for the kids.
7:30 - 8:00am
Head further down the street to be in position at Washington and St. Charles for 8:00am. You'll see some maskers begin to come out to try to get on TV before the parades start. As you walk down St. Charles, you'll be passing through "ladder city." People have been out on the neutral ground all night saving spots for the family and friends. Those people start arriving to relieve the brave troopers who stood guard around now.
8:00 - 9:00am
Watch Pete Fountain's Half-Fast Walking Club as they head out from Commander's Palace Restaurant (Prytania and Washington). Pete's is probably the best-known of the marching clubs, since he's such a celebrity. The club starts their morning at Commander's for breakfast and hits the street around 8 o'clock. Depending on how the clubs are moving, you may see a club or two before and after Pete's group turns onto St. Charles.
9:00 - 10:00am
You need to move down between Jackson Avenue and Lee Circle to catch Zulu as it turns from Jackson onto St. Charles. Zulu starts at 8:00 on Claiborne and Jackson and makes its way down Jackson to St. Charles very slowly. I believe they make a stop or two to toast various groups along the way. The parade hardly ever runs on time, so you don't really have to hurry. In the meantime, the street is filling up with maskers and other revelers.
10:00 - noon
Rex starts at Claiborne and Napoleon at 10:00am. If you caught Zulu above, you have half an hour to an hour to get into a good position for Rex. I'd suggest that you make your way all the way to Canal in this in-between time. St. Charles goes from a divided 4-lane street to an undivided 2-lane (one way) street after Lee Circle, and the flow of humanity is much more concentrated at this point. You'll be coming up on Gallier Hall, which is the old City Hall and the traditional viewing spot for the mayor and others in city government. The reviewing stands on in front of Gallier Hall and across the street are packed, and run all the way to the sidewalk, so there's no standing room in front of them. There are lots of cops to keep you moving through, also. Then you come up on Poydras Street, which isn't all that bad a place to see Rex, but it will be crowded.
Right past Poydras is the Intercontinental Hotel, which is the official Rex reviewing stand (where Rex toasts his queen). Again, there won't be any place to stand in this area, so keep walking until you get to Canal. Try to stake out a spot in the neutral ground area. Remember--the parade passes on *both sides* of Canal in between St. Charles and Elk Place (it turns towards the lake onto Canal, turns back to the river at Elk Place, and heads down to Camp St., where it travels down about three blocks before turning to disband at the Rivergate.
noon - 2:00pm
Enjoy Rex. This is one of the biggies, folks. With the passing of Comus, Proteus and Momus, Rex is one of the few "old-line" krewes left. Look for the Bouef Gras, His Majesty's Bandwagon, His Majesty's Streetcar, His Majesty's Calliope, and some of the best floats of the season. The theme will most likely be something a bit highbrow, based on literature or the arts. Watch for the mounted officers in purple, green and gold costumes. Rex will toast the Mayor at Gallier Hall and his Queen at the Hotel Intercontinental, so he'll be moving non-stop when he turns onto Canal. Prior to last year, Rex met his Queen and her court at the Boston Club, whose stands were located on the corner of St. Charles and Canal. The City Council's passage of an open organizations ordinance forced the Boston Club to withdraw from public participation in the Carnival season, so as to avoid serious scrutiny of its membership rolls and policies.
2:00 - 4:00pm
Watch as many of the 200 or so truck floats in the Elks Krewe of Orleanians and Krewe of Crescent City as you feel. Truck parades are a unique part of Carnival, because entire families get together and ride on a truck, husbands, wives, kids, grandparents. It's a big day for them, and you get to see some wonderfully decorated floats. There are no bands or marching groups in these parades, so it's just one truck after another. I tend to lose interest after about 50 or so trucks. How long you last is up to you.
4:00 - 11:45pm
Head into the Quarter from your vantage point on Canal. Have fun, yell, scream, cheer, remove clothing (within limits, of course), but most of all, keep moving. Fights break out and people get hurt when the crowd stacks up, so the cops do everything possible to prevent that from happening. If you brought beads with you, you can exchange them with others on the street and on balconies above you for various things: glimpses of the person's anatomy, beer, or access to a bathroom. Start on Bourbon Street and walk down as far as the crowd goes. Turn around and head back on Decatur or Chartres and do it all over again. Remember that venturing into the Quarter is not for the faint of heart. You'll see anything from housewives showing their chests to drag queens to drunks getting sick, etc. Look out for the various fundamentalist Christians out and about trying to explain how all this stuff is bad for you. You also may run into some counter-demonstrators mocking the Christians (the Church of Frog normally makes an appearance on Fat Tuesday). All of this will go on well into the night.
11:45pm
GO HOME! At midnight, the Quarter turns into a pumpkin, almost literally. Cops start at Bourbon and Canal and go through the Quarter, chasing everyone out of the streets. Behavior that was acceptable an hour earlier can now land you in jail. The party is over and Lent has begun. Head indoors to a party or a bar, or back home to sleep it off. |
