Wearing a platinum blonde wig, sparkling silver shorts and a ruffled white blouse, Edward McDaniel took the stage at the St Bernard Parish Civic Centre on last month to accept an honour he’d been long awaiting: queen of the 60th ball held by the Krewe of Petronius, the oldest LGBTQ Mardi Gras organisation in New Orleans.
Originally scheduled for 2021, the party was called off last year, when COVID-19 scuttled many of the city’s usual Mardi Gras events.
The return of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Carnival wowed crowds this week.Credit:Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune, The New Orleans Advocate via AP
“Not having Mardi Gras is like a void,” said McDaniel. “You don’t realise it until you miss it.”
New Orleans has only cancelled or severely cut back Carnival a handful of times since 1857 — for war and pestilence (and once, in 1979, for a police strike). Even Hurricane Katrina in 2005 didn’t stop the parades from rolling six months later.
But after Mardi Gras 2020 became one of the first US COVID “superspreader” events, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell banned parades, and strictly limited other events for 2021, forcing the city’s defiant celebrants to stage pandemic alternatives, including highly decorated “house floats.”
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Mardi Gras to New Orleans. The biggest tourism draw in a tourism-dependent city, the annual festival season brings in roughly $1 billion worth of economic activity, according to a 2020 Wallethub study.
The streets of New Orleans were packed for the Mardi Gras Carnival on Tuesday.Credit:David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune, The New Orleans Advocate via AP
To pull off this year’s Mardi Gras, city officials had to overcome a host of challenges, from the lingering effects of the pandemic and ongoing public health restrictions to the city’s strained police resources. While some parade routes were shorter this year, New Orleanians embraced costumed partygoers and bead-littered streets as signs of a return to normalcy, New Orleans-style.
“After the setbacks of the last year or two — first the pandemic then Hurricane Ida — getting to celebrate Mardi Gras again is a source of hope and inspiration for everyone in the city,” said Mayor Cantrell. “We know that holding Mardi Gras is an indicator of how the city is doing, and so we’re excited that it is back this year.”
The Bourbon Street Awards costume contest was a popular Mardi Gras event in New Orleans on Tuesday.Credit:Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune, The Advocate via AP)
Among members of the city’s krewes — the membership groups that organise parades and balls held during the weeks of Mardi Gras season — it’s the intangible social benefits that are Carnival’s most critical contributions.
Artist and teacher Devin DeWulf moved to New Orleans to volunteer in the city’s recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina; inspired by the elaborate and painstaking suit-making process of the city’s Mardi Gras Indians, he built his own Mardi Gras suit out of red beans and founded the Krewe of Red Beans in 2009. What started as a small group of roughly 25 schoolteachers and recent arrivals to New Orleans has since blossomed into a 450-member krewe that sponsors three kid-friendly “bean parades” that march on Lundi Gras, the Monday before Fat Tuesday.
When COVID struck, DeWulf and other members of his krewe also started a non-profit organisation, Feed the Second Line, to help support older musicians and artists affected by the pandemic.
“We are a model of how a parade organisation can really step up and help,” DeWulf said. “I am able to deal with all of our potholes and our political corruption and whatever else comes our way because we’ve got this amazing community spirit.”
That mix of resilience, philanthropy and frivolity is a fixture of LGBTQ krewes in particular. During the 19th and much of the 20th century, anti-sodomy laws and widespread homophobia forced much of New Orleans’ gay culture to operate in the shadows. But on Mardi Gras, police couldn’t arrest someone in drag because they were technically in costume, so the community felt largely comfortable “gaying” it up, without fear of legal retribution.
Another entrant in the Bourbon Street costume contest at the Mardi Gras on Tuesday.Credit:Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune, The Advocate via AP
Founded in 1961, the Krewe of Petronius survived the lavender scare, multiple hurricanes, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which took a heavy toll on membership of LGBTQ krewes, according to Howard Philips Smith, historian and author of Unveiling the Muse: The Lost History of Gay Carnival in New Orleans. “Instead of raising money for their balls, they raised a lot of money for AIDS patients,” he said.
After decades of dwindling memberships, LGBTQ krewes are thriving again, with new groups, such as Lords of Leather, joining veteran organisations like Petronius. In difficult times, Smith says, the role that these krewes play in keeping the community together goes far beyond the fleeting pleasures of parties and parades.
“We can throw a ball.” he said, “and that will help people to recover from hardship.”
Bloomberg
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